The Price of War
by Swiperfox
Summary: After a short take on what happened right after the season one finale, this story is about what could have happened when Danny was recalled to the Marines and the war. Mainly Danny, Larry, and Ed.
1. 1

Authors Note: I started writing this story back in the fall sometime. The first chapter was originally stand alone (and writen before the dvds came out, so I had only seen the season finally once and didn't remember it well), but then I decided to continue it.  
Thanks to my beta readers who know where I'm heading with this and keep reading it anyway. You two are the best!  
As normal, feedback and replies help the writing process and create more chapters! Enjoy!

-Chapter 1-

Danny stood on the curb outside of the airport and watched Mike drive away in his car. He sighed as the taillights disappeared in the distance.

It was the middle of the night. There were only a handful of people around, even here in Las Vegas. Danny picked up his bag, straightened his uniform, turned and walked through the doors.

He had purposely asked Mike to drop him off early; a fact that no one was aware of. He wanted some time to himself before getting on the plane. He needed to get himself mentally ready to go and do what he needed to do.

As he made his way through the mostly empty airport, Danny loosened his tie. He closed his eyes as he walked. He could see Mary waving goodbye to him, only she was younger. The image was from when he left for basic training, not tonight. Sighing, he opened his eyes just in time to dodge a motorized tram heading right for him. The operator waved and nodded in Danny's direction. Danny forced himself to smile in return even though he wanted to yell at the driver.

What people saw on the outside, a strong, confident soldier headed for some unknown destination, didn't match what he felt on the inside. He was scared. He knew where he was going and he was scared that he wouldn't make it back. But this is what he was trained for and his head knew what to do, even if his heart didn't like it. He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.

He stopped outside the little barbershop on the airport concourse. The man inside looked up from his newspaper and then stood up. Danny walked inside and dropped his bag.

Mary had only lasted about ten minutes before she ran out of her house and hopped into her car. It had been a wonderful goodbye, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she would never see Danny again. And that just wasn't an option for her.

She swerved around the few cars that were on the highway at this hour. She even thought she saw Danny's car heading back in the other direction. Of course, she thought, Mike is taking it home with him. Realizing that that meant Danny was already at the airport and her time was running out, she pushed the gas pedal to the floor.

In record time Mary had parked her car, probably illegally, and was running into the airport having ditched her heels outside. She skidded to a halt in front of the television monitor listing all of the flights. Only then did Mary realize that she had no idea where Danny was going. Her heart sank. Her eyes ran over the list of flights again and again, hoping one of them would jump out at her. Nothing did. She didn't know if he was flying overseas right away or somewhere else in the country first.

Mary could feel the tears building up in her eyes. She sniffled and looked around her. There was a waiting area just behind her, so she went to sit down. Something inside of her wouldn't let her leave. The airport was huge. Even with it nearly empty, there was little chance of her finding Danny. She sat there staring at the television monitor, waiting.

The more minutes that ticked by, the more Mary felt she had lost him. She watched flights disappear from the list on the monitor and wondered with each one if he was on it. Voices coming from the entrance pulled Mary's eyes from the screen across from her. Her heart jumped up into her throat. A soldier in his dress uniform walked through the door. He had his arm tightly around a young blond woman with him. Mary watched them walk up and stop to look at the flight listing. She caught the gaze of the woman and they shared a teary eyed smile. Mary looked away and listened as they discussed which gate his flight would be leaving at. Then they walked away, heading for that gate, since his boarding was scheduled to begin in the next fifteen minutes.

Mary held onto the hope that the chance of two soldiers leaving from the same airport on different flights was very slim. As she waited anxiously for the couple to disappear down the concourse toward the assigned gate, she began to wonder. The flight this soldier was on was scheduled to leave nearly an hour later than Danny had led them to believe his was to leave. She began to get nervous that maybe they were on different flights and Danny was already gone.

No, she thought, this is right; he's still here. She stood up and made her way down the hallway, wringing her hands together as she went. She had only a few minutes left, if that at all.

Mary made her way down the hall, staying close to one side. She wasn't completely sure what she was going to do if she saw Danny. The little voice in the back of her head said that he was happy with their goodbye. After all, he'd done the same thing before leaving for basic training. What would he do if he saw her here?

She stopped in her tracks. Did she want the possibility of ruining her happy memory if it wasn't the same for him? Her eyes filled up with tears. Maybe this wasn't right. She would miss him of course. And she would rather have their goodbye at her door to remember than whatever might happen here if he was angry.

She wiped her eyes carefully and straightened herself up. She ran her eyes over the hallway in front of her and up the wall across from her. Her breath caught in her chest and she gasped.

In the little barbershop, the barber made one last pass with his clippers to finish up the soldier who had wandered in. There had been some small talk, but the young man had been mostly quiet. He stared blankly ahead, devoid of emotion. The barber unfastened the cape and let the soldier up. He stood and brushed himself off, retrieving his coat from the empty chair to his right. He asked what he owed and the barber shrugged him off. He was told instead to stay safe and come home. Thanks were exchanged and the young man picked up his bag and left, headed down the hall to the gate where a plane was beginning to board.

Mary had shrunk back behind a row of lockers. She watched Danny walk out of the barbershop and run his hand over his fresh crew cut. She felt the tears running down her face and opened her mouth to call out to him. At that moment the final boarding call for the flight was called; Danny's flight. He pulled his bag up higher on his shoulder and began to run down the hallway. As he turned the corner into the gate area, Mary began to follow him. She made it down the hallway just in time to see his boarding pass returned to him and to watch him disappear through the doorway.

Mary sat down on the nearest chair and cried.


	2. 2

-Chapter 2-

Larry was panicky. He was sitting on a hard plastic chair watching hundreds of unfamiliar people move around him. He had spent a few minutes watching the people sitting across from him. Then he started watching others walking by. Then he started to feel dizzy. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his head dropped into his palms. He closed his eyes and tried to quiet his mind.

He had been in this place for only a half an hour, but he had left his house nearly twelve hours earlier. A series of alarms sounded followed by yelling in a foreign language that he was becoming used to hearing. When he opened his eyes and looked up, he found there was a soldier standing in front of him.

"Mr. McCoy?" Larry stood up, nodding his head. "Have you been waiting long?" Larry shook his head.

"No. I just got here." He turned behind him and picked up his coat. The soldier gestured down the hall to his left.

"If you'll just come this way sir." Larry nodded dumbly and started walking. The soldier fell into step next to him. They stopped near a bank of elevators and the soldier pressed the up button. He said nothing as they waited. Larry stared at his reflection in the mirrored doors in front of him.

He hated hospitals. Nothing good ever happened in them. Well, he thought, except for when Danny was born. He smiled absently at the memory of his son as a newborn, bright red and screaming, already mad at the world.

The sound of the elevator doors opening brought Larry back to reality. He followed the man accompanying him onto the elevator. Staring up at the numbers as they lit up and blinked out one by one, Larry found himself thinking of his son once again.

Danny had come to tell him that the Marines had recalled him to service. Larry had been so angry at the news, but mostly he had been scared. He had told him to be careful and to come home safe. He hadn't listened and now Larry's worst fears were becoming reality.

The elevator doors slid open and the two men inside walked out. The entered a small waiting room across the hall. The soldier stood next to a worn couch and gestured to Larry.

"Please sit down. The doctor will be here in a few minutes." Only after Larry had sat down did the other man turn and leave.

It was nearly another half-hour before anyone else came into the waiting room. Larry was getting more and more agitated. He wanted to know what was going on. He was beginning to worry that it was taking too long… what was the problem?

And then the doctor was there. For a long minute Larry could only stare at him. He couldn't make himself stand up to meet this man, or even raise his hand to greet him. Worst of all, he couldn't seem to hear a word he was saying.

"Mr. McCoy?" Larry blinked and started nodding quickly.

"Yes, yes… I'm sorry." The doctor sat down next to Larry and put his hand on his arm.

"It's all right." He smiled politely. "I'm Dr. Miller. I've been in charge of Daniel's case since he was brought in."

"Danny." Larry said weakly.

"Excuse me?"

"Danny, he goes by Danny." Dr. Miller smiled and made a note on the paperwork in front of him.

"We were wondering what to call him." Larry stared at the man in front of him. He allowed himself a moment of hope, a moment not to expect the worst. He opened his mouth to ask the question he had been dreading since the phone call he had received early this morning, but nothing came out. Dr. Miller looked up from his papers, which he had been shuffling, and cleared his throat. "Let's get down to it then." He put the paperwork face down on the table next to him and looked at Larry, his expression completely unreadable. "Danny was brought in nearly forty-eight hours ago now. I'm really unclear about the circumstances of what happened before that, but I will try to fill in as much as I can." Larry could only nod. "Please, feel free to stop me and ask anything that you need to."

"Okay." The doctor shifted himself slightly in his chair and seemed to wait until Larry appeared ready.

"Danny is in serious condition, but at the moment he is stable. He came out of surgery two hours ago. His left leg was nearly shattered. We put in pins to hold it together while it heals, but some of them may have to stay in permanently." The doctor stopped and cleared his throat again. He looked quickly down at his hands and then back up at Larry, who was beginning to relax slightly. "Now for the more serious part. Danny is in a coma. He has major head trauma." Once again, Larry could only stare at Dr. Miller. His head was swimming and he put up a hand to stop the doctor as he closed his eyes. After taking a few deep breaths, he opened his eyes again and forced himself to look up at the doctor.

"I'm alright. Please keep going." The doctor was looking at him nervously.

"Are you sure? Because I could get some…"

"Please. I just need to hear it." Dr. Miller nodded.

"Okay. Like I said there is a lot of swelling in his brain that's going to need some time to go down. Until that happens, we can't be sure of any damage, permanent or temporary." Dr. Miller watched Larry's eyes darting toward the hallway and the way he was wringing his hands on the edge of his sweatshirt. "We'll talk later about more of the details, but right now I want you to be with your son." Larry's eyes shifted back to the doctor and his features moved between relief and fear.

"Good. Yes. I… yeah…" He stuttered a little more and finally stopped. "Yes, I need to see him." Dr. Miller nodded his head.

"Before I take you to his room, I need to prepare you for what he's going to look like. I don't want you to be surprised. Okay?" Larry nodded, the fear finally settling across his face. "Alright, there's a tube down his throat to help him breathe." As Larry closed his eyes briefly, the doctor decided to move this along. "There are quite a few other tubes and wires that are helping us monitor him and keep him stable, IVs and such. There are some bandages on the back of his head and his forehead and of course the cast on his leg. Other than all that, he's got quite a few cuts and bruises that are mainly superficial and he's got what we call raccoon eyes. That's a condition that comes with the type of head injury he's had. It is just what it sounds like. He looks like he has two black eyes. Because of the severity of Danny's injury, they're pretty dark. But it's nothing to worry about, just like any other bruise they will go away." Larry opened his mouth but paused. "Please ask… there really are no wrong questions in this kind of situation."

"Will he have vision problems because of that raccoon eyes thing?" Dr. Miller shook his head.

"He shouldn't. But again, we really won't know any thing definitely until the swelling goes down." He took a deep breath before finishing what needed to be said. "I have to tell you Mr. McCoy, that there is a chance that the swelling could go down and he won't have any brain function." Dr. Miller stopped, wondering if he needed to expand on what he had said. There was no reaction from Larry, so he went on. "The next several days will be very important in his recovery and we won't cross any bridges until we come to them."

Larry felt like he had been punched in the stomach. There was his worst fear. This doctor had just told him that his son could die. His Danny. Larry let his head drop down and allowed himself a minute of flat out fear. But that couldn't last. He had to be strong and take care of his son. He pulled himself together and looked up at Dr. Miller.

"Okay." Larry stood up and picked up his things. "Let's go see him." He forced a weak smile on his face and was relieved to see it returned much stronger on the doctor's face.

Dr. Miller stood up and led Larry out of the waiting room and down the hall.

The doctor had left him in the doorway, telling him how to get ahold of him if there was anything he needed. Larry stood there for a moment listening and staring at the curtain ahead of him. He could just see the end of the bed in the room and the large cast covering his son's bruised foot. Walking the rest of the way into the room, Larry closed his eyes as he reached the curtain. He turned toward where Danny lay and opened his eyes. Larry felt the tears immediately spring to his eyes and there was no way to stop them from falling down his cheek.

Danny was barely recognizable. The bruises covering his eyes were so dark that they just looked like they were shadows. The tube coming out of his mouth was held up over the bed so it obscured most of his face. Larry walked around to the side of the bed and pulled a chair over. He sat down and gently picked up Danny's hand. He wanted those fingers to tighten around his hand so badly, but they just lay limply. He reached his other hand up and stopped before touching Danny's face. There was barely any part that was unharmed in some way and Larry couldn't bring himself to do anything that could bring pain to his son. Then it occurred to him that not only was Danny on heavy pain medication; he was deep in a coma. He wouldn't feel anything.

Larry let his hand drop lightly on his son's head and ran his fingers through Danny's hair. It looked like it was stained slightly red and was dirty. Larry couldn't help but picture Danny covered in blood and dirt, being brought in here earlier. He put his head down on his arm and cried silently. The only sound in the room was the rhythmic breathing of the ventilator and the beeping of the other machines keeping Danny alive.


	3. 3

-Chapter 3-

Mitch was sitting in the security office flipping through the various views of the casino floor and its surrounding area. He had started with one view on each of the many screens on the wall in front of him, but now the pictures were coming up filling the entire wall. He switched them back to the smaller views so he could keep an eye on as much as possible. Satisfied that there was nothing dire happening down on the floor, Mitch rolled himself back to his desk and opened the game of solitaire he had started playing earlier.

Quickly becoming engrossed in the cards, Mitch didn't hear anyone coming into the room behind him. He won his game and yawned and stretched his arms while waiting for a new one to load.

"Slow night?" Mitch jumped and reflexively clicked the game window shut on his screen. He knew it was too late though, Ed was standing right next to him.

"Yeah, slow night." He nodded and met his boss's gaze. Happy to find Ed smiling, he shook his head. "You scared the hell out of me." Ed just laughed and started walking toward his office.

"Just be sure you remember to play the 'search the big screen for the bad guys' game every so often… in between your cards." Ed chuckled and slid his office doors closed behind him.

It was an incredibly slow night at the Montecito. Mary was sitting at the bar in Mystique, her legs swinging back and forth, banging against the legs of the stool. Delinda was leaning on her elbows on the bar. The two girls had been sitting there for nearly an hour. The restaurant had only ten different groups of people eating and less than that anticipated from the remaining reservations. Delinda stood up suddenly, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Ooo, let's get out of here and go over to that little club down on 3rd." Mary lazily turned her head in her friend's direction.

"Hmm?" Delinda frowned.

"Mary! Were you even listening to me?" Mary couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry! I spaced out. What did you say?" Delinda frowned. She knew her friend was thinking about Danny. No one had really mentioned anything about him since he had gone overseas. She didn't even know if anyone had heard from him. _Mary needs to be distracted._ Delinda's frown turned into a pout.

"Never mind." Mary knew she was playing with her now. She spun on her stool to fully face Delinda. Her face was twisting trying to hide her smile. Mary smirked.

"You know, with a man like Ed as your father… you'd think you'd have a better poker face!" Both girls burst out laughing. Delinda made her way around the bar and put her arm through Mary's, pulling her to her feet and towards the door.

"Let's go have some fun. We aren't going to miss anything around here!"

Mitch smiled as he watched Delinda and Mary on one of his security screens. They went out the front entrance and got into a cab at the valet station. _At least someone is getting out of here for a while. _ He turned his attention back to his computer monitor. Just as he was getting engrossed in the card game, the phone in front of him rang. He sighed and picked up the receiver.

"Security." The voice on the other end simply asked to speak to Ed Deline. Mitch pressed the hold button and transferred the call in to Ed. He hung up when he saw through the doors that Ed had picked up. He only paused briefly when he saw Ed punch the button to cause his office windows to turn opaque. _Must be something important._ He turned his attention back to his solitaire game again.

Ed waited until his windows were completely covered and he had total privacy. He took a deep breath and reached out with a shaky hand to pick up the receiver again.

"Larry? Are you there?" There was a moment of silence broken only by static. Then he heard the other man speak.

"I'm here. Sorry, the connection isn't very good."

"That's okay. What's going on? Where are you?"

"Ed, look, Danny's been hurt. I flew over in a hurry yesterday and didn't bring anything with me. You're the only person I could think of that can get into Danny's place." Ed closed his eyes.

"Wait, wait. Slow down. What happened to Danny?" He rubbed his eyes and left his hand on his forehead.

"I'm sorry. I don't have a lot of time. I know it's a huge favor, but can you get some things for me… for us, and send them. I'll tell you where my house keys are at Danny's place and give you an address to send everything." Ed searched around his desk for something to write with, pulling over the nearest piece of paper. Larry began listing off things he needed from his house and Danny's. Ed wrote as fast as he could, but stopped when Larry gave him a mailing address.

"Larry wait. I can just bring everything. It will get there a lot faster…" Ed paused when Larry began to refuse. "No, I want to. And I am." Ed began typing on the keyboard in front of him, creating a flight plan for later that evening. "Now please, tell me what happened to Danny?"

It was another ten minutes before Ed hung up the phone. He took a minute to just sit at his desk and let this all sink in. His eyes filled with tears that he angrily wiped away. _Damnit, this isn't the time. _He stood up and grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair. A quick check of his watch told him he had a little more than an hour to get over to the airstrip where the Montecito jets were housed. It had taken some string pulling, but he had managed to get clearance to have his own plane fly him all the way over. It would waste too much time to try and wait for a commercial flight.

Ed slid open the door to his office and shut off the lights as he walked out. He looked over at Mitch who was still playing his computer game.

"Mitch." He poor man jumped at his boss's voice for the second time that evening.

"Where are the girls? And Mike?" Mitch clicked something with the mouse in his hand and rolled his chair back a few inches, turning to look directly at Ed.

"Mike and Nessa are off for the night. Delinda and Mary left in a cab about a half an hour ago. And I have no idea where Sam is, sorry." He shook his head slightly, but definitely looked concerned at his boss's current state. Ed rubbed his forehead.

"Alright, nevermind." _I'll call Jillian later._ He focused his attention back on his employee, still staring at him expectantly. "I'm going out of town for a couple of days. If anyone asks, just tell them that…" He searched his brain. "Well, I don't care what you tell them. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Ed made record time getting over to Danny's apartment, once he made it to the car anyway. He had been in the parking lot before he remembered that the keys to Danny's place were still up in his desk drawer. It had actually crossed his mind to call up and ask Mitch to get them and bring them down, but decided that he didn't want anyone going through his drawers.

Now he was stopped outside of Danny's door. He had the key in the lock but hadn't yet turned it. Something was stopping him and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He shook his head. _Get on with it Deline._ He quickly turned the key and opened the door. As he walked through the unusually clean apartment, he pulled the list out of his pocket. "Larry asked me to bring clothes for Danny. That has to be a good sign. Right?" Silence was his only answer.

He went into Danny's bedroom and found a dufflebag that he quickly filled with jeans and t-shirts. Then, following the directions that Larry had given him, he found the spare keys to the house. Checking his list one more time, Ed made sure he had everything that Larry had asked for from here.

Ed stopped, again with the key in the door. He looked back into the apartment. That feeling was back again. He knew that the situation with Danny was serious. Maybe that was it. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that Danny wouldn't come back to this place. He made a face and pulled the door shut.

The drive to the McCoy house was slower. There were more cars out now. Ed looked at his watch. There was a half an hour left to make it to the airfield. Luckily, Larry's house wasn't that far from it. There was also the fact that the plane wouldn't leave without him. He grinned to himself.

Ed was in and out of the house in less than ten minutes. The only time he stopped was when he was in Larry's bedroom. While pulling clothes out of the drawer and stuffing them into a bag he had found in the closet, Ed's eyes had fallen on a row of pictures on a shelf to his right. He had stopped and gone to look at them. The first one he picked up was of Larry's wife. She was young and really beautiful. Ed didn't think he had ever seen a picture of her before. She was sitting on a porch swing hugging a small boy with blond hair in her lap. Ed recognized Danny right away, his smile was still the same. He frowned and put the picture back. Then, another one had caught his eye. This one was Danny in his dress blue Marine uniform. It was near the back of the shelf, almost entirely hidden by other frames. Ed had reached back and pulled it out to look at it. He recognized it as a picture that was taken near the end of basic training. He had definitely never seen Danny in his military uniform before and he just stared at the picture. "I'm coming kid. Hang on."

Back out in the car, on the way into the parking lot of the airfield, Ed couldn't stop processing his reaction to looking at the pictures. Danny wasn't his son. He was his employee, and he hadn't even been that for very long. Somehow this kid had wormed his way into Ed's heart and made a place there for himself next to Delinda and Nessa. For the second time that night, Ed roughly wiped away tears that formed in his eyes.

Once he was settled in one of the leather chairs on the plane, Ed pulled out his cell phone. He stared out the window as they taxied down the runway and then gradually lifted up above the clouds. As Las Vegas disappeared behind him, Ed put his phone down next to the chair. He stood up and reached for the bag he always had in his car in case of emergencies. It had a few changes of clothes in it and some other things he might need.

After changing into jeans and a polo shirt, he sat back down and stared at his phone. Finally picking it up, he pressed the button that speed dialed Jillian's number and closed his eyes as it rang.


	4. 4

-Chapter 4-

Larry sat in a chair in the corner of Danny's room. He watched as a nurse checked Danny's vital signs and made notes in her chart. She turned and nodded at him.

"Okay Larry. No change." She smiled a sad smile at him and left the room.

Larry stood up and walked over to the bed. He laid his hand on Danny's forehead, careful not to disturb the bandage covering his stitches. He ran his hand back through Danny's hair and sighed.

"Come on Danny boy. Wake up, please." He leaned down and kissed the top of his son's head. If only there was some reaction, his finger moving, his eye twitching, something that told Larry that he heard him. But there wasn't. He was completely still. The doctor had told him that even though Danny was in a deep coma at the moment, there was a chance that he could hear his father talking to him. So Larry talked to him. He had already told him about how they were going to spend some more time together when he got better and about what he knew of his friends back home. That was all just this morning.

He settled himself back in the chair next to the bed and wished again that the ICU rooms had televisions. After ten minutes of staring at the walls, Larry had had enough.

"Alright Danny, " He stood up and looked down at his son. "I'm going to go get some lunch. I'll be back soon." He let his finger brush against Danny's cheek before he walked out of the room.

Halfway to the elevators, Larry heard a commotion coming from the nurses' station off to his left. He stopped walking and turned to look.

"McCoy… Daniel R. McCoy." Ed Deline was starting to get mad at the woman sitting on the other side of the small counter. She shook her head and Larry realized that she was one of the nurses who didn't know English. While he was sure she understood his son's name, she had no idea what Ed wanted with Danny.

"Ed!" Larry walked towards him, actually laughing at the misunderstanding he was interrupting. Ed turned to him, a look of relief crossing his face. Larry reached him and nodded toward the nurse. "She doesn't speak English." Ed looked incredibly guilty for yelling at the woman.

"Sorry." He mumbled in the woman's direction as Larry led him away from the nurses' station. Larry reached over and took some of the bags that Ed was carrying.

"Thank you so much for bringing this stuff. I've been wearing the same clothes for days now." He smiled slightly. "The nurses offered me some scrubs, but I just didn't want to wear those." He turned and walked into Danny's room, dropping the bags in the corner. He walked over and put his hand on Danny's forehead, to let him know he was back, and turned to find Ed still standing in the doorway.

Ed watched Larry disappear around the curtain. He could see the end of Danny's bed and hear machines beeping. When Ed blinked and looked up again, Larry was standing in front of him again. "Come on." Larry motioned for Ed to follow him and this time, Ed did.

He walked right around to the chair next to the bed that Larry had offered him and sat before he let himself really look at Danny. The boy looked terrible. His face was so pale that he almost looked gray, except for the dark bruises covering his eyes and the various marks beginning to turn yellow over the rest of his face.

Ed reached over and picked up Danny's hand, unhappy to find it heavy and lifeless. He turned slightly so he could see Larry, who was sitting in a second chair by the window. "How's he doing?"

Larry shrugged. "It's so hard to tell. I guess the good news is that he hasn't gotten worse." He was quiet for a second. "There really hasn't been any change at all."

Ed looked back to Danny's face. He stared at him in silence for a full minute. He had been prepared for what he would see in this room, after all, he had seen it so many times before… But this was Danny, his protégé. His… his what? Not his son, no that was Larry's title. But Ed couldn't help feel like he was looking at his own child unconscious in front of him. He sat forward slightly and put his hand on the side of Danny's face. He could see a tube coming from the back of his head and looked back toward Larry, questioningly. Larry stood up and walked over so he could see what Ed was looking at.

"Oh, that's connected to the shunt they put in. It drains fluid from his brain as the swelling goes down." Larry frowned. "You know, I never wanted to be so well versed in medical information." He walked around Ed's chair so that he was closer to the head of the bed. Reaching over, he turned Danny's head carefully like he had seen the nurses do so many times. "See? The last time they checked it, they said it was doing alright, but until they run some more tests, they won't know how much the swelling has gone down." He shifted Danny's head back to its normal position and ran his hand over Danny's hair softly. "I never get used to him with this military haircut." He laughed softly. "He never had really short hair as a kid and he wasn't ever home when he was first in the Marines."

Larry sighed quietly and shrugged as he walked back to the other side of Ed's chair. "Anyway, that's the worst of the injuries. The doctor said even his leg isn't as dire. They're pretty sure that's going to heal fine. He might have a limp, but he can live with that." Larry's voice choked slightly. Ed looked up and found the other man staring straight ahead, blankly. Before he had a chance to react, Larry had cleared his throat and was turning back toward the bed. "He's got other minor injuries too. A couple of broken ribs and some internal bruising, nothing that won't heal completely.

The two men sat and watched Danny lay in the bed for a long time in complete silence. Ed had no idea what to say that would help. He was having a hard enough time trying to accept the fact that Danny might not make it through this.

It was late in the afternoon when Ed followed Larry through the sliding doors of the hospital entrance. Ed had insisted that Larry go with him to drop his things off at the hotel and then get some food. It seemed that there wasn't going to be any great change in Danny's condition and he thought it would be a good idea for Larry to get out of there for a little while.

When they walked into the hospital room, Larry was surprised to find the doctor and one of the nurses standing around Danny's bed. "What's going on?" He moved closer, but could see no change in his son.

The doctor held up a hand and shook his head. "Don't get alarmed, please Mr. McCoy. I was just doing a complete check up on Danny." He turned back to the nurse who had been busy checking Danny's vital signs and waved her away. Turning back to Larry and glancing towards Ed, the doctor motioned toward the chairs in the room. "Let's talk."

As the two men moved further into the room to sit down, the doctor again looked towards Ed. Larry caught the glance this time and pointed toward Ed as he sat down. "I'm sorry. Dr. Miller, this is Ed Deline. He's a close family friend." Ed and the doctor shook hands quickly.

Once Larry and Ed were seated, Dr. Miller looked directly at Larry. "Once again, from these brief check ups, there is no change in Danny's condition. At this point, we had hoped to see some improvement." Larry swallowed hard and glanced toward the bed where Danny lay. "It's been several weeks and at this point we need to start thinking about running another battery of tests. I need to get a look at how his leg is healing anyway, so we're going to take him and do a more thorough examination."

Larry sat up more in his chair. "What kind of tests are we talking about?" Dr. Miller sat lightly on the edge of Danny's bed.

"We're going to check the level of swelling in his brain. If that has gone down a significant amount, as we think it has, we will check for brain function." The doctor continued quickly to hold Larry's questions. "Now, what we could find is that he's just coming back slowly. He's in a pretty comfortable state right now with machines to do pretty much everything for him. We would never begin to back down the ventilator at this point though. We need him to show us some basic functioning before we will even try that." Larry shook his head.

"What do you mean by that?"

"We need him to try taking a couple of breaths on his own. I'm sure you've heard us referring to him triggering the vent. If he was attempting to breathe, it would pull on the mechanism in the ventilator and cause an alarm to sound." He smiled briefly. "It's a good alarm though. Once he begins sounding it more regularly, we would turn the machine down slowly, letting him build up to breathing on his own again fully. When someone is on a machine this long, we can't just take them off of it suddenly." Dr. Miller shifted himself around slightly and picked up his paperwork, flipping though the pages in the chart. "The other thing we need to talk about is if we do find that the swelling has gone down and we don't find any brain activity. I'm obviously not going to ask you to make any decisions at this point, but it's something you might want to begin to think about." Larry's eyes moved to his son again. "Do you have any questions?" The doctor looked between Larry and Ed this time, who both shook their heads quietly.

The doctor stood up and walked toward the door. "A nurse will come by in the morning and we'll take Danny and run those tests. If you think of anything you need to ask, give me a call."

The two men sat in complete silence for a while before either of them moved. Ed was the first to react. He took a deep breath and stood up, walking to Danny's bedside. He reached down and picked up Danny's hand. "Well, Larry." He turned back toward the other man. "We both know that he's a fighter and if it's in him at all, he's going to be fine."

Larry looked up at Ed with tears in his eyes. "I can't lose him now." He shook his head. "What will I do if they tell me that he's gone?" The grief that Ed saw in Larry's eyes and on his face was the same that he felt in his heart. He put Danny's hand down and walked back to sit in the chair again. He rested his hand on Larry's arm, shaking his head slowly.

"I don't know." Ed frowned and looked over at Danny. "I just don't know."


	5. 5

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the great reviews! I have been suffering some major writer's block on this story… but I think it's broken now. Here's hoping! Please keep the reviews coming. I love reading them!

-Chapter 5-

Jillian sat nervously in Ed's office. She was staring at his phone, willing it to ring. She hadn't heard from him since he had called from the plane and she was getting worried. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Jillian found she had only a few more minutes before the meeting she had arranged. Her anger at Ed for leaving her to tell everyone what was going on had subsided, but she was still scared.

A minute later, the door opened and Delinda walked through pulling Mary behind her. Over the past several days it seemed that the two girls had gotten closer. Jillian didn't know the reason behind it, but she was happy to see it. She had a feeling that the news she had to deliver was going to hit Mary the hardest.

"Hi Mom!" Delinda walked over and kissed her cheek.

"Hi girls." Jillian smiled as brightly as she could. "Is everyone else coming?" Before Delinda could answer, the door opened and Sam and Mike walked in scrapping back and forth at each other. Nessa was behind them, bringing up the rear. Delinda just shrugged and grinned at her mother.

"Okay, we're all here. What's going on Mom?" Delinda sat down in the remaining open seat on the couch with Sam and Nessa. Mary stood leaning against the wall and Mike had slouched down in one of the chairs.

"Yeah, have you finally overthrown Ed and you're running things now?" Sam grinned as she flipped her phone shut.

Jillian couldn't help but laugh, although her smile quickly faded as she looked over the people in front of her. These were Danny's closest friends, how was she going to tell them what little news she knew?

"Mrs. D?" Mike sat up and leaned forward in his chair. "Is everything alright? Where's Ed?" The rest of the group murmured their agreement with Mike's question.

"Alright, alright." Jillian shushed the group in front of her. "Ed's fine. I promise." She looked directly at her daughter who had suddenly gotten the same frightened look on her face that she used to have whenever Ed left on one of his CIA assignments. It seemed to soften slightly at her words, but didn't go away completely. "I don't have good news though."

She stood up and walked around to the front of Ed's desk. "Danny's been hurt." She held up her hands to try and stop the questions that she knew would follow and moved over to put her hands on Mary, who had become incredibly pale. She helped Mary to sit in the chair that Mike had just vacated and kept her hands in Mary's. "I haven't talked to Larry myself, but Ed did. Larry didn't tell him much over the phone and I haven't heard from Ed since he flew over to be with him." She let go of Mary's hands and stood up again. "All I know is that he was unconscious and had been in surgery."

The group in front of her began speaking all at once, firing questions and voicing great concern and worry over their friend. Jillian looked down at Mary, who had dropped her head into her hands and appeared to be crying. Delinda followed her mother's gaze and got up to comfort Mary.

"Mrs. D?" Mike's voice made Jillian look up again. "You're saying 'was' and 'had', how long has it been since you've heard anything new?" The room was silent again except for the occasionally sniffle from Mary, who was also looking up at her now.

"A couple of days. The only information I have is from Ed and the last time I heard from him was when he was on his way over there." She frowned at the look of disappointment on all of their faces. "But no news is good news, right? If something had happened, Ed would let us know."

Mary's fear seemed to overwhelm her and she stood up and ran from the room. "I'll get her." Delinda stood up and went after her friend. Jillian was left staring at the remaining three.

"I know this is hard to hear, but it's better that you know. I'm sure Ed will call to check in soon." She walked back around to sit in Ed's desk chair and leaned back, covering her eyes with her hands. Nessa, Mike, and Sam all got up and silently left the room.

Delinda caught up to Mary near the end of one of the long hallways that snaked around behind the walls of the casino. "Mary!" She ran up and grabbed her arm. "Mare, please." Mary stopped running and turned toward Delinda, her face streaked with dried tears. Her eyes pleaded with Delinda for a second before she let herself fall into her friend's open arms.

Holding onto Delinda desperately, Mary tried to calm herself down. "This can't be happening." She shook her head back and forth. "Can't be. I can't have been right." Delinda stopped rubbing her back and pulled her back to arm length away in front of her.

"What are you talking about Mary?" Delinda looked at Mary, who was still shaking, but seemed to be calming down slowly.

"That night, the night he left… I had this feeling that I wouldn't see him again after he left my place, so I followed him." She stopped to catch her breath, her mind seeing him walking through the airport all those months ago.

Delinda pulled Mary over to the side of the hallway, where the two women sat down on the floor. She waited sensing that Mary was lost in some memory. When her eyes seemed to refocus on the present, Delinda reached over and took Mary's hand, silently urging her to continue.

"I thought maybe I had missed him." She shook her head. "But he must have had Mike drop him there earlier than he needed to. I saw him boarding the plane and just had this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that he was really gone." She dropped her head down and closed her eyes. Delinda reached over and pulled her friend's chin up so that they were eye to eye.

"That feeling in your stomach was fear for him and what he was going to do. I know because I had it too. He's going to be alright. Daddy will make sure of it." Delinda leaned back against the wall and smiled. "I bet we haven't heard anything because Danny's keeping Daddy and Larry busy demanding all sorts of weird things. He's probably asking for those chocolate things he likes so much."

Mary laughed and leaned her head against Delinda's shoulder. "Choco-chunks, he loves them." They sat together quietly for a few minutes. "Thanks Delinda." Delinda wrapped her arm around Mary's shoulders and tried to keep smiling for her friend.

Mike, Sam, and Nessa were sitting at the bar in Bella Sera. Jillian's meeting had been conveniently scheduled at the end of their workday, so they all had drinks in front of them.

"He's got to be alright." Nessa stared into her already empty glass as Mike downed the last of his beer and looked over at her, nodding in agreement.

"I hope Delinda found Mary." Mike waved the bartender over and ordered another beer. Looking to his companions to see if they wanted another round, he sighed and shook his head, letting the bartender leave. "That's where I found him the night he left, you know… at Mary's."

Sam smiled in one of her rare dreamy states. "Of course that's where he was. Do you think we're all stupid?"

Mike shrugged. "I don't know. I was a little surprised. He didn't even kiss her goodbye when he left."

"I'm sure they had taken care of that by the time you showed up." Sam grinned and sat up fully. "Cause you know, they sat around talking all night before he left for war." She said, dripping with sarcasm. Sam stood up and gave Nessa a quick hug and Mike a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to get out of here. I'll see you two in the morning."

Mike watched her walk away and disappear into the crowds near the slot machines. Turning back toward the bar, he found Nessa still lost in her empty glass.

"Nessa?" Mike reached over and took the object away from her. "You alright?"

She looked up at him and smiled briefly. "I just can't stop thinking about what might have happened to Danny."

Mike reached over and put his hand over hers. "I'm sure he's fine. Probably just tripped over something and hit his head too hard. He's going to wake up and be really pissed off." Mike chuckled thinking of Danny stuck in a hospital bed again. "He hated being in the hospital when that guy shot him in the leg, remember?"

Nessa laughed. "Yeah, he was ready to kill us all ten minutes after we got there."

"That might have been partly because we were picking on him though."

"I think that might have had something to do with it." Nessa smiled again. "I'm sure you're right. It's just odd that no one's heard from Ed since he went over there."

Mike picked up his beer from where the bartender had left it and drank some. "With the time difference and everything… I bet Jillian's up in his office talking to him right now."

Jillian sighed and stood up from Ed's desk. She picked up her jacket and purse and looked around to make sure that everything else was in its normal place. Satisfied that her husband's office hadn't been disturbed too much, she walked out the door and locked it behind her.

On her way down through the casino, she saw Delinda and Mary walking arm in arm toward Cup a Joe's. Neither of the girls looked particularly happy, but they seemed to be okay. She smiled, glad to see that these kids were as strong as she had hoped they would be. She continued out the front door and walked around to where she had parked her car.

As she got in and pulled the door shut, she felt her phone begin to vibrate. Flipping it open, she saw that Ed had finally responded to the text message she had sent him hours earlier telling him she would be meeting with the staff and asking how Danny was. His reply was merely two words, 'not good'. She closed her phone and started the car. Until she had something more concrete to tell them, this message would be for her eyes only. She backed out of the parking spot and pulled onto the strip, headed home.


	6. 6

Thanks for all of the great reviews guys. Keep 'em coming and the story will keep coming. As of about 5 minutes ago, this story was written through chapter 10 and still going strong.

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-Chapter 6-

Ed stood in the far corner of Danny's room and watched Larry leaning over the bed whispering in his son's ear. He held Danny's hand with one hand and stroked his hair with the other. Ed felt like he was watching Larry say goodbye to someone going to the electric chair. He sighed and turned to look out the window. That idea wasn't so far off; he knew Larry was saying goodbye. If the test results came back that Danny was indeed brain dead, he would have been for all this time, but the hope and the idea that he could hear them would have died.

Larry finally stood up just as a pair of nurses came in the room. He leaned down and kissed his son's forehead quickly before backing away so they could take Danny out of the room. He walked over to stand next to Ed at the window, staring out, wringing his hands with nervousness.

"How long did the doctor say he was going to be gone?" Ed turned around to look at the empty space where the hospital bed had been.

Larry shook his head. "He didn't say. But I would guess it will be a while."

"Good." Ed took Larry by the arm. "You're going to drive me insane if we have to sit here the whole time waiting."

"But Ed…" Larry dragged his feet, pointing back in the room.

"They know how to find us. Come on; let's go for a walk outside or something."

Dr. Miller was standing by a light box, looking at the x-rays of Danny McCoy's leg. The many pins were brightly visible against the image of his healing leg. There was still a clear break visible, but many of the smaller ones were closed up. It would be another month at least before they could think about removing any of the pins or the cast. He turned off the machine in front of him and turned back around to where some technicians were getting Danny ready so they could check the level of swelling in his brain.

"We're going to be able to take those stitches out of his forehead while we have him too." A nurse made a note of that and went to get a suture removal kit.

Dr. Miller stood at the end of the bed and watched his patient carefully for signs of response to what was happening around him. He pulled his pen out of the pocket of his lab coat and ran it roughly up the bottom of Danny's right foot. The man's reflexes caused his leg to jump back and his toes to curl in. Dr. Miller smiled. "Now that's a good sign." He walked around to the side of the bed, staring at Danny's eyes, the dark marks still there making it hard to judge eye movement. "Let's hope this hurts." He said softly as he pressed his thumb down on the nerve between the man's eyes. The doctor smiled as Danny's eyes twitched and his head pulled back slightly. "I don't think we have anything to worry about with this one."

The technician walked up to tell Dr. Miller that they were ready to run the CAT scan. The doctor nodded and walked out of the room to watch the results come in on the computer in the adjoining space.

"And the next thing I know, Greg is pounding on my front door. His face his brown with dirt and streaked with sweat and tears." Larry stopped for a minute, laughing at the memory of the ten-year-old boy.

Ed laughed along with him. "Go on. What happened?"

"I get him in my truck and he tells me which way to go. They were at the city highway department. You know, where they have those huge piles of dirt?"

Ed laughed louder. "Oh no!"

"And there's Danny, at the bottom of the pile, leaning against the wreck of his bike. He's got blood running down the side of his face and looks like he's going to start crying any minute. I just picked him up, threw him in the truck and took him to the hospital. And all the way there he's whining about his bike, which I left there."

Ed sat down on a bench they were passing and motioned for Larry to sit too. They had been walking around the hospital grounds for more than an hour. Ed had tried everything he could think of to keep Larry distracted, but had found that talking about Danny worked best.

"So what happened?" Ed leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"He ended up with six stitches and a sprained knee." Larry laughed. "And once he was off the crutches, he was grounded for a week for taking off like that." They both laughed.

Ed shook his head. "You're making me very thankful, for once, that Delinda was a girl. He definitely gave you a run for your money."

Larry nodded. "There was never a dull moment. Still isn't." He added quietly.

Done with the first round of tests, the technicians were getting Danny ready for the next round. Dr. Miller walked into the room, still going over the results of the CAT scan. He put the paperwork down and walked over to check on Danny. "How are we doing Mr. McCoy?" He watched his eyes again carefully, this time seeing some small movement. "Can you hear me?" He watched again, nothing. He checked his vital signs manually and looked at the area where his stitches had been. Picking up the paperwork again, Dr. Miller made some notes on it and started to walk away. Across the room, an alarm started to sound.

Larry stretched his legs out. "A lot of the time I felt like I had a daughter too." He looked over at Ed and shook his head regretfully. "I wish I could have taken her in all the time, but one kid with one parent was hard enough." He frowned. "Now that I've caught on to what was going on in that house, I wouldn't have let it stop me."

Ed nodded. "But there's only so much we can do and you obviously did enough. Mary turned out fine."

Larry smiled. "Yeah, she did."

The two men stood up and started walking back toward the main entrance of the hospital.

"No help from Danny though." Larry laughed.

Ed stopped walking. "What are you talking about? I thought they were really close growing up."

"Well, they've definitely been friends for a very long time." Larry thought for a minute. "It was more like having a little sister to pound on when they were young… except they were the same age."

Ed laughed. "I sense a good story or two here."

"Oh yeah! Mostly it was just the normal, boys picking on girls stuff… spiders in her underwear drawer, stealing her dolls and cutting their hair off… all that crap. Oh, but one time, Greg and Danny, they must have been about thirteen and they were out catching snakes in the field near our house. Mary came by looking for Danny and I sent her out to find them… easiest way was always to tell her to look for their bikes. Not a half an hour later, she goes running by crying."

"Uh oh, what did they do?" Ed stopped walking, again intrigued by Larry's stories.

"It took a lot of 'persuading' on my part before they told me, but apparently they saw her coming and snuck up behind her so they could drop the snakes all over her." Larry couldn't help laughing. "They were just little garden snakes, but there were a lot of them."

"That poor girl." Ed shook his head.

"I know. I made them come and find her with me. She still had one in her hair and another down her sweater."

Dr. Miller followed the nurses who were bringing Danny back to his room. He walked in and looked around, surprised to find that Larry and his friend weren't there. Putting the test results into the chart that hung on the end of the bed, he walked up and began checking all of the tubes and connections to make sure nothing had come loose while being moved. He shifted Danny's head and checked the shunt and the tube coming from it. Satisfied that nothing had gone amiss, the doctor checked the settings on the ventilator and left the room. He walked out to the nurse's station to have Larry McCoy paged.

Ed followed Larry through the doors back into the hospital. "Was that how they always were? I got the impression that Danny took care of her."

Larry shook his head. "He terrorized that girl when they were young. But he was a kid; he didn't know what was happening in her house. Don't get me wrong, they had their nice moments, but he really didn't figure it all out until they were around fourteen, maybe fifteen." Larry nodded absently, lost in memory. "That's when he really started taking care of her, making sure that she was safe."

The loud speaker over their heads crackled to life and for once the announcement was in English. "Larry McCoy please report to room 837, Larry McCoy."

Larry looked over at Ed, seemingly frozen in place. "I don't know if I can do this."

Ed put his hand on the man's back and pushed him forward a few steps. "Putting it off isn't going to change the results at this point."

They walked into Danny's room a few minutes later, only to find it empty except for Danny. Larry rushed over to the bedside and picked up his son's hand. He ran his hand over Danny's forehead and smiled. "They took out the stitches."

"Yes, we did." Dr. Miller walked in and took the chart off of the end of the bed before pulling up a chair and sitting down. "Okay, let's talk."

Ed walked through the room and sat in the remaining chair once he was sure that Larry intended on staying right where he was.

Dr. Miller flipped through the pages in the chart. "Alright, first of all, the swelling in Danny's brain is approximately ninety percent of the way down." He looked up at Larry. "That's a good thing. So we went ahead and tested for brain activity."

Larry felt like he was going to pass out and looked down at Danny's face. "Hey, he's moving his eyes!"

Dr. Miller smiled. "Yes, he started doing that earlier. Larry, he's got plenty of brain activity. Your son is doing fine and he's actually beginning to show signs that he's coming out of the coma. He's reacting to pain and his reflexes are strong, he even triggered the alarm on the vent before."

Ed couldn't hide the smile on his face and stood up so that he could see Danny's face. He was still for a minute, but when Larry leaned down and said something in his ear, his eyes ticked slightly to the left.

Dr. Miller cleared his throat. "This is, of course, all wonderful news. As far as what's going to happen now… people wake up at different speeds. This could still take quite a while. Larry, Ed, you need to keep talking to him. Now it's also important to ask him to do things like opening his eyes, squeezing your hand, moving his toes. He's slowly going to be able to do all of these things. This is all we can do now until he wakes up fully. We won't be able to tell what kind of damage there is, permanent or otherwise, until he's conscious."

Larry looked up from watching Danny. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not going to lie to you or try to make anything sound better than it is. He will wake up; he has more brain activity than just basic functioning. But he is going to have some brain damage and we won't know until he can be evaluated, the extent of that."

Larry seemed to take this in rather calmly. "Okay. We'll see then."

Dr. Miller nodded. "That's right, we'll see." He stood up and walked over to the bed where he reached down and put his hand on Danny's forehead. "You're doing well son, just keep at it." He stopped to shake both Larry and Ed's hands and left the room.

Ed grinned. "I told you he would pull it out when he had to."

Larry nodded. "I know, it's like he knew this was the day to really start fighting." He pulled a chair over and sat down, picking up Danny's hand. "Danny, come on buddy, squeeze my hand." He frowned when nothing happened.

Ed walked around to the other side of the bed and studied his protégé's face. "Danny." He laughed when he saw Danny's eyes move around some. "Good, he's still scared of me."

Larry shook his head, laughing. He felt the adrenaline begin to leave his body and yawned, laying his head down on the edge of the bed. _How bad off can he be, at least he'll be alive and awake. That's better than no Danny at all._


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for all of the replies guys! I come back and read them over again when I'm feeling stuck. I know you all are anxious for chapters, especially knowing that I have them written... but I really like having a buffer for times like now. I'm taking a break to reorganize my thoughts and ideas for this story... and to do some heavy research. I didn't want to keep you all waiting too long while all of that goes on, so here's an update.  
As always, feedback is adored!

-Chapter 7-

Ed sat on the edge of his bed in the hotel room. He was trying to work out the time difference between where he was and Las Vegas. Frustrated, he just picked up the phone and dialed his home number, hoping that Jillian would answer.

On the third ring, she picked up and answered, her voice heavy with sleep. Ed closed his eyes and smiled.

"Hey sweetie." He could hear Jillian sitting up in bed and switching on the light.

"Ed? What's going on? It's so early."

"Nothing. I just didn't have the patience to figure out what time it is there, sorry."

Jillian laughed and let herself relax against the headboard. "How are you?"

Ed smiled. "I'm alright. I miss you."

"I miss you too Eddie." She bit her lip. "How's Danny doing?"

Ed stood up and walked to the window, looking out toward the hospital. "He's doing better everyday." Leaning his forehead against the window, Ed sighed. "But he's still not awake."

Jillian frowned. Ed had called at the beginning of that week to update her completely on the situation. She had been relieved to hear that things weren't as dire as they had first seemed, but concerned that Danny still hadn't regained consciousness. "What has the doctor said? How much longer do they think it will take?"

"Dr. Miller said it could take a long time. But like I said, he's showing more signs all the time. He started trying to squeeze Larry's hand last night." Ed laughed lightly. "He's really weak, but he was moving his hand. And he's trying to breathe on his own all the time now. They finally turned the alarm on the respirator off in the room. It just flashes a light at the nurses station now."

Laughing, Jillian shook her head. "It sounds like he's playing with you guys."

There was only silence on the other end of the line as Ed walked over and sat in a chair near the window. "Ed?" Jillian asked, concerned.

Ed closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm just really worried Jill. It's taking him so long… I don't think he's going to be right." Actually admitting this out loud made Ed choke back and lose his breath. He had been thinking it for a while now, but didn't want to say anything to Larry. He opened his eyes and stared silently out the window until he could speak again. "I don't know what Larry's thinking. We have talked about everything else in the world but what could happen when Danny finally wakes up. I don't think he really wants to think about it."

"That's probably good." Jillian wiped a tear off of her cheek, wishing she could give her husband a hug. "If he stays positive, I mean. You should try to as well."

Ed nodded to no one in particular. "I know and I am." He chuckled. "I just needed to let it down for a minute. God, I miss you."

"I miss you too, but you stay there as long as you need to… as long as Danny and Larry need you to."

"Will you let the rest of the kids know what's going on and tell Delinda I love her?"

Jillian smiled. "Of course I will. Keep me updated."

With a last declaration of their love, Ed hung up the phone. He stood up and stretched, trying to pull himself back together before heading back to the hospital where Larry had spent the night again.

Hours later, Jillian walked into the Montecito. She was happy to finally have news, but hated it at the same time, knowing it wasn't enough and wouldn't satisfy anyone.

"Mom!" Jillian turned around and spotted Delinda waving at her and pushing her way through a crowd at the front desk.

"Hi honey." She kissed Delinda's cheek and took her hand. "Will you help me find everyone else? I've talked to daddy." Jillian smiled weakly. "He said to tell you he loves you."

Delinda's smile faded and she swallowed hard. "What's going on, mom?"

Jillian shook her head. "You can wait. I only want to go through it all once." Seeing the look on her daughter's face, Jillian smiled. "It's not what you're thinking. I promise."

Finally all settled again in Ed's office, the group of people in front of Jillian were quiet and serious; a big change from the start of their last meeting. No one seemed to want to speak first, so Jillian cleared her throat.

"I've spoken to Ed twice now since the last time we talked. Last Sunday afternoon we talked for a long time. Danny is in a coma and has a machine breathing for him. They're waiting for the swelling in his head to go down and for him to wake up. The doctor says he will wake up, they just can't judge how long it will take." She took a deep breath and looked at the floor. "Or what he'll be like when he does."

The group in front of her began firing questions all at once. "Guys!" Jillian held up her hands. "We're going to have to get Ed on a conference call to answer all of your questions. I just don't know that much. I talked to him again this morning and he said that Danny is starting to come around. He's trying to breathe on his own and he's moving his hands and eyes. I'm sure he'll call to let us know when anything more happens."

Jillian took a minute to look into each of their faces. In every one she saw fear and worry for their friend. "I'm sorry that we had to have this meeting first thing in the morning, but I didn't want to wait to tell you anything."

When she thought the room had cleared, Jillian looked up to find that Mary was still sitting on the couch. Sighing, she stood up and walked over to sit next to the girl, who was looking very pale.

"Are you alright Mary? Is there anything you'd like to ask? I can try to answer."

Mary looked up at her and wiped at the tears under her eyes. "What did you mean when you said they don't know what he'll be like when he wakes up? I mean, I'm not stupid, I get it… I just want to know what they mean specifically."

Jillian nodded. "Well, Ed said that the doctor hadn't mentioned anything specifically. He said that they were sure now that Danny would wake up and that he wouldn't just be unresponsive. I think they're just waiting to see."

Mary nodded, still looking very unsure and scared. "I just wish I could see him."

"We all do, sweetie. We all do." Jillian rubbed Mary's back and held her hand.

Down on the edge of the casino floor, Mike was keeping an eye on some potential troublemakers near one of the blackjack pits. He watched Delinda walk out of Mystique and head toward him; he could tell that she had been crying.

Once she was close enough, Mike gave her a hug. "How are you doing?"

She leaned her head on his shoulder for a minute before pulling herself back to her full height. "I'm alright, I guess. I just can't believe this is happening." She stared blankly into the crowds moving through the casino. "When I was little we always used to wait for my dad to come home from his missions." She looked back at Mike. "But we also waited for that call to tell us that something had happened. It never came with my dad; I never thought it would come for Danny."

Mike nodded his head. "I know. I figured when we were all saying goodbye to him it was just us doing the expected thing. I didn't really think anything would ever happen to him."

Ed pulled Larry out of the hospital room behind him. "You need to eat something. Let's go!"

Larry balked, stopping in the hallway. He turned back to look at the door to Danny's room. Ed sighed.

"Larry, he would be really pissed off if he knew you weren't eating and barely sleeping." He pulled the man's arm gently. "We won't even leave the hospital, okay? Just down to the cafeteria."

Larry finally relented and started walking down the hall to the elevator. "Have you talked to Jillian recently?"

"Yeah, just this morning." Ed nodded, thinking about his wife back home.

Larry rubbed his hand over his forehead. "How's everyone back in Vegas? Has she told them?"

"Yeah, but she didn't have much to tell them before. So I don't really know how they're handling it."

Larry frowned as they stopped outside the bank of elevators and pushed the button to go down. Down the hall behind them a series of alarms sounded and the nurses went running. "God I hate hospitals." Larry rested his hand over his eyes.

Ed turned to watch the commotion and felt his jaw drop when he saw the women running into Danny's room. He swallowed hard. "Um, Larry…"

Larry let his hand drop back to his side and turned to follow Ed's gaze down the now empty hallway. "What's wrong Ed?"

At that moment the stairwell door opened and Dr. Miller appeared. Larry felt the blood drain from his face. But instead of running down the hall, the doctor just smiled at the two of them.

"I'm glad I caught you." He put a hand on each of their shoulders and pushed them down the hall. "He's awake."


	8. 8

Once again, thank you for taking time to reply. I was struck by inspiration on a new story and have been working on that… this one on the other hand, now has a complete outline and I've done quite a bit of research. Now I just need to start writing it again.  This is actually kind of a fluff chapter, but it needs to be in there, obviously.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated and helps me write faster. 

-Chapter 8-

Danny's vision was cloudy, but he could make out that there were other people around him. It was like watching an old television with bad reception and sound that goes in and out. He knew people were poking at him and occasionally asking him questions. His greatest urge was to get whatever was in his mouth out, but he didn't have the strength to lift his hand up higher than a few inches. The fuzzy ringing in his ears cleared to the sounds of the room suddenly and the loud noise made him close his eyes in surprise.

It took all of Larry's self control to keep himself from running down the hall to Danny's room. When they finally walked through the door, there were too many people in the room. He pushed his way past them to get to the bed and looked down at his son.

Danny's eyes were clenched tightly closed. Larry looked up at Dr. Miller, who just nodded at him.

Larry gently picked up Danny's hand. "Danny?" The young man's eyes opened and at first he just looked straight ahead, but slowly he turned his gaze toward his father. Larry couldn't help himself; he let the tears in his eyes fall. His other hand moved to Danny's forehead as he sat down next to the bed. "I'm here buddy. Everything's going to be alright."

Dr. Miller moved over so that he was standing on the other side of the bed. "Well, he seems to know his name and his father's voice. That's good."

Ed stood back near the window of the room, but he had positioned himself where he could see Danny's face. It was incredible to see his eyes open again, but the poor boy looked completely overwhelmed.

Dr. Miller rested his hand on Danny's other arm, causing the young man to shift his gaze in that direction. "Okay Danny, we need to see how you're doing. Can you blink your eyes once for me?" Danny did as he was told, looking quickly back at his father.

"I'm going to ask you some yes or no questions. I want you to blink once for yes and twice for no. Do you understand?" Danny was still looking at Larry, but he slowly moved his gaze back to the doctor. He very deliberately closed his eyes and then opened them again.

"Good!" Dr. Miller smiled. "Do you know where you are?" Again Danny blinked his eyes once.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" After a long pause, Danny blinked twice.

"That's alright. We'll get you all caught up later on." The doctor pointed across the bed at Larry. "Do you know who this is?" Danny shifted his eyes toward his father and blinked once quickly.

"And what about this man?" Dr. Miller motioned for Ed to approach the bed. Ed moved to stand next to Larry and looked down at Danny. He watched the boy's eyes move over to his face and then smiled when he blinked once.

"Wonderful!" Dr. Miller began writing in his chart. "It looks like his memory is fine. We'll do some tests to see if we can get him off of the respirator. I'll let you know soon." With that, the doctor and most of the other people in the room left.

The sound coming through Danny's ears had returned to the fuzzy ringing, which was a lot quieter. He worked hard to focus his eyes on his father and Ed who appeared to be talking. Unable to tell if they were talking to him or just to each other, Danny let his eyes relax and eventually close.

Ed stopped talking and nodded in Danny's direction. "He's out again."

Larry looked over at his son and reached out, quickly grabbing his arm. Danny opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before seeming to see Larry.

Ed laughed and pulled Larry back a few steps from the bed. "Larry, he's just sleeping now. I promise!"

The two men watched as Danny's eyes slowly closed again. After a few minutes Larry walked back and sat down next to the bed. This time he resisted the urge to reach out and hold his son's hand.

"He doesn't look any different now." Larry reached up and gently ran his fingers through Danny's hair.

Ed walked back and looked down at his protégé sleeping. "I know. But watch his eyes."

Silently, they both watched Danny's eyes shifting around indicating that he was indeed sleeping and even dreaming.

A few hours later, Dr. Miller returned to Danny McCoy's room. He smiled, finding all of its occupants asleep. He walked over and woke up Larry and Ed.

"Gentlemen." He smiled again as they sat up in their chairs, both immediately looking to where Danny was still asleep. "He's fine."

Larry coughed lightly and stretched. "What's going on?"

Dr. Miller sat on the edge of the bed and consulted his chart. "Well, Danny's oxygen levels are great and that's with the vent turned down pretty low. So we'd like to try taking him off of the machine." He looked over at his patient. "It's actually better that he's asleep when we first turn it off. It will all be on his reflexes for him to breathe, not on his will."

Larry glanced over at Ed briefly. "Alright, if you think he'll be okay, let's do it." Larry folded his hands in his lap and found himself twisting his fingers together nervously.

Dr. Miller walked over to the machine that was sitting next to the bed and turned the power off. Turning back to the bed, he disconnected the main part of the vent, leaving just the tube going down Danny's throat. For a very long five seconds there was no sound and no response from Danny. Larry opened his mouth to speak just as, in his sleep, Danny did as well. He gasped and took a huge breath of air in, at the same time opening his eyes.

Dr. Miller smiled. "There you go!"

Larry was about to complain and point out the look of panic on his son's face and in his eyes, when he realized that Danny was breathing on his own. Dr. Miller pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the young man's lungs.

"Everything sounds great Larry." The doctor turned around to face Danny's father. "I'll have a nurse come in a few minutes and she can take the tube out." He turned back to address Danny. "You aren't going to be able to talk for a while since you've had that tube down so long, so don't even try. Understand?" Danny blinked his eyes once deliberately before drifting back to sleep.

Dr. Miller looked back at the other two men in the room. "He probably won't be able to make much sound of any kind. After this long, the vocal chords go into a kind of paralysis. But it will wear off." He glanced back at his patient. "And I'm not sure if I mentioned that he's going to be pretty tired." He laughed. "But I think you guys have seen that already."

Once the doctor had left the room, Ed and Larry both stood up and stretched. Larry walked over to sit by Danny's bed. Because of the tube still down his throat, Danny was breathing through his mouth and it was slightly amplified coming out of the piece of plastic.

Larry smiled. "I think that alone is the best sound ever."

Ed walked over and smiled. "Yeah, I would have to agree."


	9. 9

The new show that I'm working on has managed to break through a very tough writer's block for me. New chapters should be coming more regularly.

Thanks, as usual, for all the feedback.

Special thanks goes out to angie, it's so nice to know that all the research I've been doing is paying off! I really loved reading your response and continue to read it over when I'm grumping at research that I feel I need to do, but don't want to. I hope you will enjoy what's coming in future chapters.

And of course that goes for all of you who read and respond. I love getting the feedback!

-Chapter 9-

"Daddy!" Delinda ran across the small terminal at the airstrip that the Montecito planes used. Ed had just walked through the doors and had only moments before Delinda reached him and threw her arms around him.

Ed smiled, the weariness of the long flight wearing off instantly. "Hi honey." Over Delinda's shoulder, Ed saw Jillian waiting for him patiently and made his way over to her. "Hi sweetheart." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, happy to be home.

Jillian rested her head against Ed's chest and smiled. "God, I missed you."

The small group made its way to the cherry red Hummer parked outside. After loading Ed's bags into the back, Delinda hopped behind the wheel. Ed let Jillian sit in the front while he climbed into the backseat. Once they were settled and moving, Ed leaned forward between the two front seats.

"Wait a minute. I drove this to the airport when I left."

Delinda laughed. "I know Daddy. We came and picked it up after we knew you were going to be gone for a while."

Jillian nodded, also laughing. "I thought it would be better to have it at home than in the airport parking lot."

Ed rubbed his forehead, realizing just how tired he was and leaned back in the large backseat.

The rest of the drive home was quiet as Ed dozed and the girls worried silently. As soon as Delinda had dropped Ed's bag inside the door of the house, she turned on him.

"Okay. I can't wait any longer. How's Danny?"

Ed smiled at her and shook his head as he walked through the door. "Come over here and sit down on the couch with me."

The girls both followed him into the living room and sat down on the couch. Ed looked down at the two of them for a minute before sitting on the edge of the coffee table. He reached over and took one of each of their hands in his and smiled at the looks of panic settling on their faces.

"He's awake." He squeezed their hands. "He's off of the respirator and doing well."

Delinda looked ready to jump out of her skin. "He's going to be okay!" She wore a large grin on her face.

Ed released Jillian's hand and rested his now free hand on Delinda's knee. "He's still got a long way to go sweetheart." He sighed as Delinda's face fell. "A long way."

Jillian reached over and put her hand on Ed's arm, silently encouraging him.

"Well, he definitely knows where he is and that something bad happened, but he seems to have no idea what happened out in the field." Ed paused. "No one does actually. Larry said the doctors weren't sure of the specifics when he was brought in." He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking that this was something to look into at some point.

"Anyway, his memory seems fine. He knew Larry right away and even me." Ed smiled and took hold of Jillian's hand again.

Delinda looked between her mother and father quickly. "So he's talking and knows everyone. What else?"

Ed shook his head. "He's not talking sweetie. He's communicating with us by blinking his answers to yes and no questions. The doctor originally thought that he wasn't talking because of the paralysis from the respirator, but he doesn't think so anymore. It may be the first sign of the damage from the brain injury." Ed took a shaky breath and went on.

"He's very lethargic still and incredibly weak. The doctor said he's going to need a lot of physical therapy to get his normal strength back. But that won't happen until he's moved to a rehab facility, which won't happen until they feel he's stable enough to be released from the hospital. He's lost his swallowing reflex, which is one of the main reasons they're keeping him there right now. He's on a feeding tube and hydration IVs and all that still."

Ed looked up and glanced around at the group of people sitting in his office and blinked in slight surprise. It felt like he was back in his living room telling this story to his wife and daughter, but now, in the blink of an eye, he was telling it to his closest employees.

Nessa cocked her head to one side, eyebrows knitted in confusion. "So what does that mean Ed, that he's lost his swallowing reflex?"

The rest of the group began murmuring their concern as well. Ed rubbed the back of his neck. "It means that he can't swallow, so he can't eat or drink on his own."

The concerned looks on the faces of Danny's friends were hard for Ed to look at. He looked down, completely focused on his hands for a few minutes.

"Look guys, he's going to make progress. The doctor assured us about that. This isn't as good as it's going to get." Ed took a deep breath. "I know you're all worried and Danny knows you're all sending him your best thoughts and prayers. Before you know it, he'll be back here thanking you himself." He forced a smile onto his face and hoped it would reassure everyone.

"I know this is a lot to take in and I'm sure you all have plenty of questions, but I really need to get some work done today. Give me about an hour to start with and then if you want to talk, come on up here. I'll give you each some one on one time, but try to focus and keep positive." With that, he dismissed the group. He watched tiredly as they all filed out of his office and went their separate ways.

Three hours later, Ed had made some progress through the piles of paperwork that had accumulated on his desk. Even though no one had yet taken him up on his offer to talk to them, he was keeping track of Danny's friends on the monitors in his office.

He sighed deeply and pushed the latest acquisition form away from him, dropping his pen to the desk on top of it. He picked up his phone and hit the button for it to ring in front of Mike, who was at his desk in the main security room.

"Yeah, Mr. D?" Mike actually turned in his chair to look at Ed through the glass doors separating them.

"Will you keep an eye on things out there and hold my calls? I'm going to try to catch a quick nap."

"Will do." Mike winked at him and hung up the phone.

Ed punched the button that lowered the shades on his office windows and stood up, loosening his tie. He walked over to the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. Satisfied that no one could see what he was up to. Ed took the water and went back to his desk. Moments later, he had a secure line on the phone and was dialing the numbers to all of the friends he had worked with while in the CIA.


	10. 10

I've decided to post this next chapter because in some ways it's like the start of a second story. There will be a return to other characters and the resolution of what was started with them, but the main focus of this story has always been Danny.

I've written a few chapters ahead again, but at this point I don't think I will be posting them. The interest in this story, as far as I can tell, has dropped. I can see people are reading it, but with no one posting any replies or leaving any feedback, I have no way to know that anyone is enjoying it.  
I'm giving it another chance with chapter 10. Please take the time, if you're enjoying it, to let me know. Thanks.

-Chapter 10-

Larry walked slowly down the halls of the VA rehab in Providence, Rhode Island. There seemed to be recovering soldiers everywhere he looked. Of course, that made sense, but it was still hard to deal with.

The decision to send Danny to the rehab in Rhode Island instead of the one closest to home in Las Vegas had been mainly the doctor's, but Larry had ultimately agreed. Based on what the early tests were showing, the special programs at this facility were better for what Danny was going to need. They had a specific speech and language pathology department, a great mental health department, and a leading program on PTSD. Besides that, Providence was close to Boston, where a lot of the top hospitals were and it was ultimately a shorter flight for Danny to have to endure.

He was killing time waiting for Danny to wake up. Knowing that the flight back to the United States was going to be long and unpleasant, Dr. Miller had given Danny a sedative before leaving the hospital. They had been on the ground in the US for almost two hours now and Larry was starting to get a little worried.

In his travels through the rehab hospital, Larry had found that there seemed to be different areas depending on the type of injury and the probability for recovery. There were patients who needed to be in the rehab, but didn't have life threatening injuries. There were ones who would obviously recover completely and leave, ones who might not recover completely, ones who would never leave the hospital, and ones who might not even survive. He couldn't decide if he was happy or upset that Danny's new room appeared to be in the area with the patients who may or may not recover completely.

He sighed and walked down to the elevators. It was time to get away from the patient rooms and explore what else was housed in this building. As he wandered, he realized that everything these guys could need was in this building. There was a full kitchen to provide food to their rooms if they couldn't leave and a full cafeteria if they could and for their guests. There was a store to buy simple basics and a larger one down the street in walking distance. There were all the medical facilities they could need and even a dentist and a barber on the bottom floor.

Larry passed by the desk at the main entrance and picked up some of the information they kept there on Rhode Island. He had never even been to the East Coast and now here he was in the smallest New England state ready to settle in for a long stay.

For now, Danny had a private room that Larry could stay in as well. There was a second bed for him and a curtain to give them some privacy. But as Danny got more settled, Larry was going to have to look for an apartment. There were some right nearby that housed a lot of the families, but he wasn't ready to think about that.

He headed back up to their room. He frowned when he walked in, seeing his son still asleep. Walking over to his bed, he sat down and opened the backpack he had been carrying with him. After shoving in the pamphlets about the state, he pulled out Danny's paperwork.

There were discharge papers from the hospital overseas and admittance papers for the rehab here, along with some paperwork from the Marines, but nothing clarifying what had happened to Danny or his status in the military at this point.

Feeling his frustration level rise, Larry shoved all of the paperwork to the bottom of the backpack and zipped it closed before letting it fall to the floor. He looked at it laying there and kicked it across the floor, smiling at the release it gave him.

"Please tell me that backpack said something horribly insulting to deserve that."

Larry looked up, surprised, and found a woman in a white lab coat standing in the doorway. She smiled at him and came in.

"I'm Dr. Williams, but you can call me Kate." She said with her hand extended in Larry's direction. "You are Mr. McCoy, yes?"

Larry nodded and shook her hand. "Yes, I am. You can call me Larry."

"Great to meet you Larry. I'm going to be handling most of Daniel's therapy here. I specialize in speech therapy but will also be working with him on his fine motor skills and anything else that comes up." She smiled. "Well, except for all the physical stuff that Shawn will take care of once we can get him down to the training room."

Nodding, Larry glanced at the curtain separating his side of the room from his son's. "That's great. Danny still hasn't woken up from the sedative that he was given before we left…"

"That's okay," she interrupted. "We've had our medical staff check him out and he's just fine. Plus this will give us some time to talk. Would you like to have a little tour of the place, maybe go get some coffee and discuss some things?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah, coffee would be wonderful."

Larry and Dr. Williams sat down at a table in the back corner of the cafeteria with their coffee cups. They had continued with small talk all through the line and now as they were sitting.

"Alright Larry, let's get down to business." Kate considered the paperwork she had in front of her. "Danny was in a coma and on a respirator for six weeks. Now, it's been how long since he was taken off the respirator?"

He thought for a minute. "About three weeks. God, has it been that long?" He shook his head and sipped his coffee.

Kate laughed. "Time flies, huh? And when he was taken off of that, Dr. Miller suggested that he had some vocal chord paralysis, right?"

"Yeah, that's what he thought at first and he was looking into it but that's when we realized that his swallowing reflex wasn't working."

"Okay and when did that return?"

"Just over a week ago." Larry watched her make some notes in her paperwork.

"Good. And he's started eating and drinking and all that?"

Larry nodded. "He can't really do it himself, but he eats when I help him and he can drink from a straw."

She smiled. "We'll teach him how to do that again. That's easy. So, has he tried to talk at all yet?"

Larry sighed. "No, he hasn't. He does occasionally make noises, especially when he's asleep, he'll groan. And he just recently started, kind of grunting." He made a face. "Kind of like he did when he was two and learning to talk. That whole pointing and grunting thing, I thought I was long past that." He laughed.

Kate laughed too. "Well, this is very similar. We've got to teach him to speak again. All of the tests have been done and there's no physical reason he isn't speaking. So that leads us to believe that it's mental and probably resulting from damage to his brain when he received the head injury."

Larry swallowed hard. He shook his head when Kate opened her mouth to question his reaction. "It's okay. I've known since he woke up that something wasn't right. Just actually hearing the words 'brain damage', it's hard."

"I understand. Luckily, the parts of Danny's brain that have been damaged are all repetitive areas, meaning they have backups or are areas that we are able to retrain. He's had no damage to areas that could leave him severely disabled."

Larry nodded. "Good, that's good. He's just so, unresponsive now."

"He's just coming back Larry. He's still, in effect, waking up from the coma. The swelling is still going down in his head and his body is busy healing what it can of itself. But it's been enough time and now it's my turn to start healing him. There's a lot that's going to happen fast, you'll see. We don't think we're going to need to teach him how to walk again; we just need to get his strength up so he can support himself on crutches. And because it's all re-learning, things come fast. You'll see." She smiled and reached across the table to rest her hand on top of his.

Larry smiled again. "I can't wait." He laughed as he reached for his coffee, beginning to feel optimistic about Danny's situation.

Kate consulted her paperwork once more. "Anything else I need to know, I can just ask you since you're going to be with us for a while." She smiled. "Let's go up and see if he's awake yet."

Larry smiled brightly as he walked back into their room upstairs. "Hey kiddo!"

Danny turned his head when he heard his father's voice. He had been staring out the window of his room. All he could see out of it were trees, which were only confusing him.

Larry walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, picking up Danny's hand. "This is Dr. Williams. She's going to be helping you out here." Larry saw the bewildered look on his son's face and glanced up at Kate. "Do you know where you are?"

Danny blinked his eyes twice, his now normal sign for saying no.

"Uh uh." Kate walked closer to the bed. "No more blinking. You can make sounds if you want to or even shake your head. We need to start being more physical and verbal around here."

Danny looked back at his father, still confused. Larry glanced over at Kate, who nodded.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked again.

This time Danny moved his eyes to Kate, who again nodded, and slowly he shook his head back and forth.

Larry smiled. "It's okay Danny. We're back in the US now. You're at the rehab in Rhode Island. Do you remember that we talked about moving here?"

Danny looked back at his father and after a pause, nodded his head.

"Good." Larry looked over at Kate.

"His memory has been good?" She questioned.

"Yeah, he remembered me right away and he seems to remember things we've talked about since he's been awake."

"Great! We'll do a little more digging on that tomorrow. But for now, I want you both to get some rest. Larry, if you need anything, here's my card. Just call me or go down to the front desk, they'll be able to help. Danny," she walked closer to him and took his hand from Larry. "I'm very glad to meet you and I look forward to having some wonderful conversations with you." She smiled and waved as she walked from the room.

Larry moved over to the chair sitting next to the bed. "I don't know about you, but I like her." He could have sworn that Danny rolled his eyes as he turned his head back toward the window.


	11. 11

Thank you all so much for the reviews!

I apologize for resorting to threats. It's very hard to spend time writing a story and not get much feedback on it. The reason I post my stories online is to see what people think of them, so it's frustrating when there is little to no response.

I am guilty myself of putting off leaving feedback and then forgetting. Because of my rant in my last chapter, I'm making an effort to follow my own advice. I hope you all will continue as well.

This story will continue. I will try to keep up with writing and posting the chapters, but it does occasionally take some time to get something written. But going back and reading those feedback posts definitely helps out.

Thanks again!

-Chapter 11-

Danny sat in his wheelchair watching the man in front of him setting up a strange looking weight machine. He had been down in the physical therapy room several times a day for a week now. From just being wheeled from place to place, he was learning the layout of his newest home.

A loud clattering noise brought Danny's attention back from his own thoughts. Shawn, his physical therapist, had dropped a ten pound weight on the floor.

"Sorry man. Saw you jump there." Shawn picked up the weight and went back to his business.

Danny stared at Shawn. He was getting to enjoy his time with this new man more and more. His first impression had been that Shawn was a bit strange, but in reality he was one of those rare people who were completely confident in themselves and were truly interested in everyone they met.

Of course, Danny hadn't made the best company for Shawn since he hadn't opened his mouth or made one sound. Shawn had contented himself with talking at Danny; telling him all about himself and relating all sorts of entertaining stories. By the third one, Danny had been smiling despite himself.

"Alright, let's get you started here."

Danny made a face and Shawn laughed.

"Don't think I don't know that the thing you want most is to get out of that chair. So let's go."

Shawn wheeled Danny over and got him started building up his arm muscles. This was the first step, Danny had been told. Get his arms strong enough so that he can support himself on crutches; then on to the rest of his necessary physical therapy.

As Danny pressed down on the bars that lifted the weights, a set up allowing him to work while in his chair, Shawn flopped himself down on a pile of mats across the room.

"Where were we yesterday?" Shawn looked over at Danny expectantly, as if waiting for him to actually answer. Danny just lifted his weights, silent.

"Was I telling you about when I was living in SoCal?"

Danny nodded.

As Shawn regaled him with tales of surfing and sun, Danny continued watching him. His time in SoCal, as he called it, seemed to have been his favorite time. He knew a different place than Danny had known in his time at Camp Pendleton and Danny was fascinated with the stories.

Shawn's stories explained his unusual appearance to Danny. Although not all that abnormal anywhere else, he didn't really fit in in a military hospital. His naturally brown hair was bleached blond and dyed with faint green streaks throughout it. Apparently many of his co-workers assumed that his hair was sun bleached, but Shawn had confided in Danny that that wasn't quite true. He wore jeans with holes in the knees and flip flops even though it was autumn in the Northeast.

But for all of Shawn's seeming flightiness, he was remarkably intelligent and very good at his job. He convinced reluctant patients to keep up with their work without them even realizing it. And now, as he lay on the floor mats rambling on about a particularly exciting day on one of the many beaches he had frequented, he knew exactly how many repetitions Danny had completed.

"Alright, that's twenty."

Danny let go of the handles and let the weights clatter back into place.

Shawn smiled. "Had enough of that, huh?"

Danny nodded and rubbed his arms. Shawn walked over and held out his hands. Knowing the drill, Danny took them and squeezed.

"Still a little weaker on the right side." He dropped Danny's hands and walked across the room and began to set out some of the floor mats. "Come on over here."

Danny had been rubbing his right hand and stopped, looking up at Shawn. The mats ready, Shawn turned and sat down on them. Seeing the look on Danny's face, he laughed.

"What? Don't think you can?"

The challenge issued, Danny slowly moved his hands to the wheels of his chair. The motion was slow and his coordination was a little off, but he managed to get himself most of the way to where Shawn was waiting.

Clapping his hands together, Shawn smiled and stood up. "We're going to be playing basketball before you know it."

Danny scowled and stared at the cast on his left leg. Shawn shrugged.

"Yeah, that will slow you down a little, but not as much as you think."

After parking Danny alongside of the mats, Shawn lifted him out of the wheelchair and helped him over to lie down. Kneeling down next to him, he picked up Danny's right leg and bent it at the knee.

"Come on, let's go."

Knowing the drill, Danny forced his leg out straight, pushing it against Shawn's resistance.

Larry pulled his jacket tighter around himself and kicked his feet through the pile of leaves covering the pathway. He took a deep breath and looked up at the deep blue fall sky.

"Larry!"

He turned and smiled when he found Kate waving as she headed in his direction. Once she had caught up to him she grinned and laughed.

"You're really enjoying the cold weather, aren't you?"

Larry laughed, watching his breath appearing in the air in front of him.

"We don't get cold like this in Las Vegas."

"You just wait until it snows. You won't be as enamored then." Kate smiled and walked over to sit on a nearby bench. She rubbed her hands together and then pulled them inside the sleeves of her sweater.

Larry followed her over and sat down. "I can't wait to get Danny out here." His smile slowly faded. "There's no reason we can't, right?"

Kate smiled, enjoying his parental concern. "No, no reason at all. Maybe if we leave him out here long enough, he'll be persuaded to let us know about it."

Larry nodded his agreement. "I don't understand all this." He sighed.

"His brain is telling him that something isn't right and because of that his language has sort of, shut down. I'm beginning to think we just need to trick him into jump starting it, getting that first word out."

Larry shifted on the bench, turning to face her. "Trick him?"

"Yeah," she spoke absently, trying to brainstorm as she went along. "Give him a reason to need something but take away every other option of his communicating except speech." She waved her hand, pushing away that thought. "We'll work on that later. What I really wanted to talk to you about is his progress, or lack of it, in what I've been working on with him." She sighed.

Larry nodded and leaned back again. He suddenly felt like he was at a parent/teacher conference for a problem child. He turned his head, focusing his attention on Kate.

She looked over at him, professionalism having taken over her face. "Danny is making progress. I know you can see that. His fine motor skills are progressing quickly."

Larry chuckled. "He's getting stronger again too. I can tell when he tries to steal the remote from me."

Kate laughed. "As long as the essential skills are returning."

Larry smiled watching Kate. He found he couldn't help it when she let her job fall away and relaxed with him. It was all too brief and she was back to business.

"All of the physical stuff is great, but I'm starting to worry about the rest of it. You know as well as I that he's not even trying to speak. I suspect he's getting comfortable communicating like this. Let's try to hold back on constantly watching him; give him more of an excuse to reach out to us."

Larry nodded. "Alright, I can do that."

"Good. Now, he's also not doing so great with the basic recognition skills."

At Larry's confused expression, she continued. "I've been asking him to identify a picture of an everyday object from three choices in front of him. I get the feeling instead of working to figure it out, he's guessing. I know he knows what a dog is, for instance, but he won't pick the picture of the dog out."

Larry looked downright frightened at this news. He turned his face, staring out at the horizon. Kate watched as his jaw tightened and his leg bounced absently.

"Larry," Kate reached over and rested her hand on his arm. When he turned to meet her gaze, he could see that her face was full of concern. "I'm not all that worried about the fact that he isn't making the connection between word and picture. It's a fairly common result of a major head injury like Danny's. What I'm more worried about is that he's not really making an effort. It's like he doesn't care about anything except for working with Shawn, and that's great but it will only get him so far."

Larry found that his hand was now resting on top of Kate's as he nodded his understanding. "Do you want me to talk to him? Or maybe I can try working with him, if you show me what to do."

Kate smiled and nodded as she met his eyes. "You would do anything for him, wouldn't you?"

Larry smiled. "Anything at all. He's everything to me."

After a moment, Kate pulled her hand back, returned to professional mode. "I'll get you some of the cards and we'll see if you can make a start with him. In the meantime, see if you can help him understand that this is just like the physical part. It all takes hard work to get results."

Kate stood up and walked back inside. After watching her disappear through the door, Larry took a deep breath, letting the cold air fill his lungs. He sat and watched the sunset before returning to the warm, brightly lit hospital.


	12. 12

Thanks for all of the reviews guys! You know how much I appreciate them.:) Keep 'em coming and the chapters will keep coming.

* * *

-Chapter 12-

As Larry made his way down the hallway toward Danny's room, a young brown haired nurse stopped him. He smiled at her.

"Hi there Emily. How are you?"

"I'm alright Mr. McCoy." She glanced over her shoulder down the hallway. "He's having another nightmare." She met his eyes again, worry showing through.

"Thanks." Larry rushed the rest of the way to his son's room and pushed open the door.

Danny was tangled in his sheets, his face and t-shirt wet with sweat. As Larry closed the door behind him, Danny shifted. He was still for a minute before shifting again. His head turned back and forth; his eyes were clenched tightly shut.

Larry watched as his son's hands closed into fists and relaxed over and over. He sighed and walked toward the bed. As he sat on the edge, reaching to brush Danny's hair from his damp forehead, Danny let out a groan. Larry pulled his hand back and watched Danny. The more agitated he got, the closer to words his noises became.

Larry tried to wait it out and see if Danny actually said anything, but he couldn't stand watching him like this. He reached over and smoothed his hair back, the other hand gripping his son's shoulder.

"Shh! Danny, come on. Shh."

In an instant Danny had come back to consciousness and was pushing Larry away. Thinking quickly, Larry grabbed one of Danny's flying hands around the wrist. He leaned back to avoid being hit and grabbed the other wrist.

Restrained, Danny blinked and seemed to finally wake up. His eyes landed on Larry and filled first with fear and then shame. He pulled his hands away from his father and, shrinking away, rolled onto his side.

Larry frowned and reached over, putting his hand on his son's back. "Danny?"

There was no response. "Danny, please."

He felt Danny move his shoulders slightly, but he wouldn't look at him.

Larry moved onto the bed more and shifted around so he could lean over and see Danny's face. He put one hand on his son's arm and moved the other one absently through his hair soothingly.

"Danny, it's okay kiddo. All of this is okay." He stopped and watched for some reaction. Sighing, he continued. "I love you as much as ever. No, even more. I'm so proud of you. This is hard and you're making progress everyday.

"But no matter what, even if you stay just like this and never make any more progress, you're here and you're alive," he paused to turn Danny's face toward him. "And that's enough."

The two men looked at each other in silence for a few minutes before Danny, his eyes full of emotion, bit his lip and nodded. Larry smiled.

"You're everything to me kiddo. I don't know what I would have done if those soldiers had been at my door that morning to tell me you were dead." He squeezed Danny's shoulder.

Letting the heavy emotion pass, Larry grinned evilly and poked his finger into Danny's shoulder. "But you aren't going to stay like this. You're going to work your butt off and make as much progress as you possibly can." Larry sat back, letting Danny sit up some. "I was just outside talking to Kate. She said you aren't trying with her."

Danny rolled his eyes and turned his head away.

"Danny, you're doing great with Shawn, but you've got to work just as hard on the rest of it. It's just as important." He reached over and turned Danny's face toward him. "And I'm going to be working on it with you too."

Danny's mouth opened slightly and Larry smiled.

"No excuses now. We're going to do this."

By the end of the next week Danny was moving himself around most of the time. He still couldn't support himself upright on crutches, but he had the strength to steer the wheelchair.

He rolled himself into Kate's office, ready to work. She stood up and smiled.

"Hi Danny!" She immediately turned back to clear the paperwork on her desk. Instead of smiling and waving like normal, Danny frowned and moved himself to the table in the corner.

"Are you ready to work? Your Dad said you've been trying hard with him. That's good to hear." She kept herself busy and her back to him until she had her pile of cards in her hand and was ready to start.

Unused to being unable to give her any kind of response, Danny frowned and glared down at the edge of the table.

Kate sat down and looked at him. "You in a bad mood today?"

He nodded his head and looked up to see that she was reading through his file. Danny's mood soured further.

"Okay, let's get started." Kate pulled out some wooden shapes, a circle, a square, and a triangle; all painted different colors. She placed them in front of Danny. He moved his gaze from his hands and stared at them.

"Which one is the square?"

He looked them over for a minute before deciding and pointing to one.

Kate smiled. "That's right."

Danny looked up at her, smiling. Finding that she was busy writing in his file, his smile faded.

"Okay, which is the circle?"

An hour later, Kate had quizzed him on the shapes, changing the questions by asking about number of sides and color. She had then pulled out her picture cards and quizzed him on those.

Danny's frustration had grown with every wrong answer on his part and every instance of her not giving him her full attention. The only time he was sure he had it was when he had slammed his hand down on the table after being unable to pick out the picture of a football.

She had met his eyes and reached over to take his hand. Even angrier that she was now paying attention to him, Danny had pulled his hand away.

"Alright Danny, I'll see you tomorrow." She opened the door so he could wheel himself out.

Sighing, Kate watched him go around the corner. Pulling her door closed behind her, she headed for the door to the courtyard where Larry was waiting.

"He's pissed off at me." She grinned down at Larry, who was sitting on a bench. "It's going to be too cold to sit out here like this soon."

Larry stood up smiling. "I'll take it as long as I can." He put his hands in his pockets. "Did he realize that you weren't watching him on purpose?"

Kate shook her head. "I don't think so." She started walking down the pathway, away from the hospital. "He was mad. I don't know if he's going to get mad enough to be forced to talk though." She stopped and looked over at Larry, who had been walking with her. "I really believe that he's very close to getting some actual words out. He's been making more speech like noises and he was making them in anger at me." She sighed. "I think we should revisit the idea of tricking him."

Larry nodded. "I suppose I'm going to be saddled with that?"

"Well, we can all work on it, but I think it will be the least damaging if you do it. Hopefully once he realizes what we were up to, he'll be okay with it."

Larry put his hand on her arm. "I'm alright with doing it. It's not the first or last time he'll be upset with me." He smiled at her. "We'll work on it tomorrow. I'm going to go make sure he's calming down." He squeezed her arm lightly and headed back into the hospital.


	13. 13

I have been suffering from some major writer's block on this story lately. I think I had a breakthrough of some sort today… keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you all for the reviews, especially for the ones that have come in recently. I have not given up on this story and fully intend to complete it, even if it takes forever!

Keep the reviews coming, they definitely help the most!

* * *

-Chapter 13-

A gust of wind blew through the courtyard, scraping leaves against the windows and pushing the clouds in front of the sun. Danny shivered as he watched the clouds pass by and the sun reappear.

"Here ya go Dan." The young man who was a volunteer at the hospital handed him a sweatshirt.

Danny clenched his jaw, wanting nothing more than to tell this man not to call him Dan. Instead he just made a face and pulled the sweatshirt over his head. After arranging the hood behind his head, he pulled his baseball hat on and hit the button to open the door leading outside.

As Danny steered himself down the pathway, Larry smiled and stood up. He met Danny part of the way down the path and settled on another bench.

"Isn't this great?" He turned his face up toward the sun, but not before he caught Danny shrugging his shoulders.

Larry sighed. "What's the matter?" He turned his head back toward his son. "You got something against the fall afternoon we're enjoying?"

Danny shook his head and rested his hand under his chin as he watched his father. Larry returned his gaze for a few moments before shifting his eyes and staring out at the horizon.

"Kate tells me that you're doing better with her stuff." Out of the corner of his eye, Larry could see Danny nodding. He turned his head slightly as he saw Danny open his mouth like he was going to say something. He appeared to struggle with it and ended up silently closing his mouth again. Larry looked away again, frowning at his son's frustration.

"You've got to talk to me Danny! I don't know how to help you anymore. Please just try." He looked over at the shocked look on Danny's face. His mouth opened again and a pained expression appeared on his face. He seemed to be telling Larry that he was trying. Making only a soft noise, Danny looked away.

Upset at his father's apparent anger at him, Danny turned his chair to go back inside. As he moved, he caught another gust of wind and his hat blew off and flew across the courtyard. He turned quickly, trying to grab it and yelled loudly as he missed and wrenched his back at the same time.

Larry looked up and caught the surprised look on Danny's face. Smiling slightly, Larry ran for his son's hat. Danny hadn't yelled any words, but he had reacted vocally to something and that was new.

As he brought back the hat, an idea began forming in his head. Standing in front of Danny, he put the hat back on his head and pulled his hood up to cover it. Smoothing the sides of the hood against Danny's face, Larry squatted down in front of him at eye level.

"You didn't try, did you? That just happened on instinct, right?"

Danny nodded slowly, confused.

Larry grinned widely. "That's good."

---------------

After watching his father run off, suspiciously happy about something, Danny slumped down in his wheelchair. With his hands stuffed in the pocket of his sweatshirt, he stared grumpily down at the sidewalk under his feet; one in a big plaster cast and the other in just a sock because no one had thought to get him a shoe.

He frowned and slumped down even more, wishing he could scream something nasty into the wind or at least has something to throw.

He pulled his hat down over his eyes and drew his hood tighter as a gust of wind blew through. Opening his mouth experimentally, he tried to think of something to say. It should be easy, just speak. It was like no words were there. He tried just making a sound and was rewarded there with a quiet, hoarse whimper.

Frowning, Danny closed his mouth. He felt the wind blow against him again and peeked out from under his hat to watch the leaves tumble by.

---------------

It was nearly an hour later when Larry realized that Danny was still sitting out in the courtyard. "Christ," he muttered under his breath as he zipped up his jacket and walked out there. "Are you hoping to freeze to death?" He called as he covered the ground to his son. When Danny didn't respond at all, Larry quickened his pace. He squatted down in front of the wheelchair and looked up, meeting Danny's eyes. Reaching up, Larry put his hands on Danny's cheeks. "God, you're too cold. Why didn't you go back inside?"

As he stood up and grabbed the handles on the back of the chair, he noticed Danny shrug. Sighing, he pushed his son inside.

Back in their shared room, Larry pulled Danny's sweatshirt over his head. "Even your clothes are freezing." He pulled the baseball hat off and threw it on the bed. Digging through one of the drawers, he pulled out a long sleeved t-shirt and another sweatshirt. Larry handed Danny the clothes and walked over to his side of the room.

A few minutes later, he returned to find his son exactly as he had left him. Sighing, Larry once again squatted down to be at eye level with him.

"What is going on with you?" Danny shook his head and Larry could see him shivering slightly.

Danny reached down and picked up the shirt. His hands unsteady, he fumbled around with it for a minute before getting frustrated and throwing it on the floor next to him. Larry stood up and picked the shirt up. He pulled it and the sweatshirt over Danny's head, not bothering to take off the t-shirt he was already wearing.

"You're really starting to scare me Danny." He rubbed his forehead. "I need you to talk to me."

Danny picked his head up and the two men met eyes. They stared at each other for a long time. Danny opened his mouth several times, finally stopping and frowning. Larry rested his hand on top of Danny's head and smiled reassuringly. "Let's go get some lunch."

----------------

As Larry waited for the chef behind the counter in the cafeteria to get him the food he had requested, he leaned against the tray rail and watched Danny. He was worried because Danny seemed to be getting more sullen and depressed as the time passed. But he was sure that his plan to get his son to talk was going to work and that kept him hopeful.

Larry's attention was turned back to getting their lunch as the chef reappeared. "Like I asked for?" He smiled as he reached over the counter for the plate of food. The chef smiled conspiratorially and nodded.

Danny looked back from the window as Larry dropped the tray of food on the table. He blinked and looked up at his father as the older man sorted out what was for whom. As Larry placed a bowl of oatmeal in front of him, Danny unconsciously let out a groan.

"Sorry kid. You've done the best at feeding yourself with this and I just don't have it in me right now to help you with anything else." Larry put a soda cup in front of his son and settled down with his own soda and a cheeseburger and fries. He took a big bite of his burger and leaned back in his chair, relaxing in the sun beam their table was in.

Out of the corner of his eye, Larry could see Danny nearly drooling over his father's meal. Larry felt bad about it, but continued to stare out the window. After another minute, he finally heard Danny picking up his spoon. Larry's curiosity got the best of him and he turned his head to watch as Danny scooped up some of the oatmeal. With one more glance at his father's meal, Danny glared at Larry and shoved the spoon in his mouth.

Instantly, Danny's eyes widened and his mouth reopened. He dropped the spoon and slammed his hand on the table. Larry looked up from the fries he had been picking at.

"What's wrong?" He did his best to sound innocent, but knew that the normally lukewarm oatmeal had been overheated purposely.

Danny pushed his bowl out of the way and grabbed at the soda cup that Larry had left in front of him. Without pausing, he brought it to his mouth and gulped down the liquid, thinking it was soda.

Knowing that he had filled the cup with the hot water left for tea, Larry watched intently hoping for his plan to work.

Less than a second later, Danny spit the water out as he dropped the cup from his hands, spilling it all down the front of him. His eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, Danny took in a great breath and yelled. "Hot!"


	14. 14

Thank you, as always, to those of you who took the time to reply. I really appreciate it.

* * *

-Chapter 14-

Larry clapped his hands together and cheered. "You did it!" He laughed at the surprised look on Danny's face.

Danny was still spitting water out of his mouth and panting from having the hot water down his throat. Coming out of his excited daze, Larry realized that Danny's mouth was probably hurting quite a bit. He jumped up to go get something cold for him just as Danny pushed everything out of the way reaching for Larry's soda. He ended up knocking it over.

As the soda spread across the table, Larry smiled. "Hang on." He ran back to the kitchen and got Danny a large soda. Returning to the table, he put it carefully in his son's hands and watched him drink most of it in one try.

When he put the cup down, Danny finally smiled. Larry sat back down and just looked at Danny, who looked truly happy for the first time since he had been awake. "Do it again."

The smile faded from Danny's face, worried that he wouldn't be able to. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about it too much. "Hot." Danny opened his eyes and his smile returned. "H-hot."

Unable to resist, Larry stood up and walked over to give his son a hug. Only when he had his arms around him did he realize that Danny's clothes were soaked from dropping the hot water.

Larry stood up and shook his head. "Let's go and get you some dry clothes."

Danny nodded and made a face at his father. "Not mice." He stopped and struggled for a second. "Nice," he finished with certainty.

Larry swallowed and decided to ignore the mistake for now. He put his hand on Danny's shoulder and squeezed it gently. "I'm sorry for my methods, but the results were worth it."

Danny's smile slowly returned and Larry started pushing him back toward their room.

---------------

In the room, Larry was going through drawers to get Danny his third set of clothes for the day. Danny was sitting on the edge of his bed with a towel, drying off; his wet shirt thrown on the floor at his feet.

"We need to do laundry." Larry sighed, pulling out one of the last clean shirts, a long sleeved gray one with the Montecito logo on it, a gift that had arrived from Ed shortly after their arrival at the rehab.

Danny looked over at his father and then over towards the window as he continued quietly toweling off.

Larry watched his son for a moment before walking over and pulling the shirt over Danny's head. He pulled Danny's chin up so their eyes met.

"No more changes of clothes today." Larry said, smiling.

Danny nodded and pushed his arms into the shirt sleeves. "K.O." He frowned and Larry nodded.

"It's okay." He ruffled Danny's hair and helped him to his wheelchair.

---------------

Kate sighed softly as she closed the door of her office behind her. She glanced through the window, watching Danny as he stared at the picture cards laid out on the table in front of him. After another minute, he shoved the cards onto the floor and put his head down. Kate frowned and walked away.

----------------

Larry walked around the corner into the lounge area on Danny's floor. He smiled as he saw Kate there waiting for him and approached her quickly.

"There you are. I got a message that you were looking for me."

Kate took Larry's arm and led him toward the couch in the corner. Once they were both settled, she rested the pile of paperwork she had been holding on her lap.

"Where were you? I figured that you would be hanging around to hear what I had to say about Danny's breakthrough." She grinned at him.

Larry shrugged. "Eh, I was out checking out some construction companies in the area." He paused and looked down at his hands. "I need some extra money and figured I could do some part-time work."

Kate nodded, understanding. "Any luck?"

"Some." Larry met her eyes again. "So tell me… did he talk for you?"

She nodded again. "He did. He seems to be very excited to communicate, however unclear it is."

Larry frowned and watched her for a second. "This isn't just because he's been quiet for so long, is it?"

Kate shook her head. "You didn't really think that, did you?"

Larry sighed and shook his head. "No, but I was hoping it was going to be something easy." He leaned back on the couch and unzipped his jacket. "So what is it?"

"Danny has a form of something called aphasia. He's having a hard time coming up with words in general and at times with coming up with the correct words. I'm sure you noticed that he says incorrect words occasionally." She paused as Larry nodded quietly. "He is aware when he does it most of the time and corrects himself. That's a good sign Larry." She reached over and rested her hand on his arm.

"Aphasia? Is this something that can be fixed?"

"I wouldn't exactly use the word fixed, but this is something that is very common in head injuries like his and it's something that we can work with him on." Kate moved the paperwork from her lap to the table next to them. Leaning back on the couch, she looked over at Larry. "There's no quick fix here, it's going to take a while."

Larry nodded. "I guess I knew that." He looked over at her. "I was just still hoping."

Kate smiled and nodded. "I should go and talk to Shawn. Being able to diagnose the aphasia explains the weakness on Danny's right side and he needs to know that." She stood up and reached for her papers.

Larry stood up and reached for her arm, turning her around. "Where is he now?"

Not needing to ask who he was talking about, Kate smiled softly. "He was in my office when I left." She turned and left the lounge, disappearing around the corner.

---------------

Larry quickly made his way through the hospital to the wing where Kate's office was. He frowned as he found the door open and the room empty. Sighing, he turned and headed back toward the lobby of the medical area, where the non-resident patients came in and out.

Approaching the main desk, Larry leaned against the counter and waited for the woman there to finish her phone call. When she did, she smiled up at him.

"Hi Larry. What can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for my son. You haven't seen him recently have you?"

The woman shook her head. "No, but I've only been here for a half an hour. Is something wrong?" she asked with the smallest amount of alarm.

"No." Larry reassured her. "I'm sure I just missed him. I just wanted to be sure he didn't come through here."

Her face relaxing, the woman smiled. "Well, if I do see him, I'll let him know you're looking for him."

With that, she returned to the paperwork that was in front of her. Larry took a minute to glance around the waiting room. He frowned slightly and headed back to the resident part of the hospital and Danny's room.

---------------

Danny wasn't in his room and he wasn't in the lounge. Larry made his way down to the physical therapy rooms and found Shawn working with a soldier who had lost a leg.

Larry took a moment to appreciate the fact that, while his son's leg was still damaged and in a cast, it was there and he would learn to use it again.

"Danny was here about, I don't know," Shawn consulted his watch. "Fifteen minutes ago."

Larry relaxed some. "Did he go with Kate?"

Shawn shook his head. "No, he showed up after Kate had already left. And hey, great news about him talking finally!" He clasped Larry on the shoulder. "Now that I know what's causing his weakness, I'll have him overcoming it in no time."

"That's great. Shawn, do you know where he was going?" Larry unconsciously took a step back, toward the door.

Shawn thought for a second, scratching his throat. "Maybe outside? He didn't say anything to me, but he had a sweatshirt."

"Great! Thanks."

---------------

Larry made his way quickly to the courtyard. "Oh thank God." He muttered as he opened the door and headed over to where Danny was sitting in his wheelchair.

"There you are!" Larry shook his head as he stopped in front of his son. "I don't know why, but I got really scared when I couldn't find you." He smiled down at the man, but stopped when he realized that Danny was glaring up at him.

"What's going on kiddo?" Larry looked around for the nearest bench and, finding none nearby, decided to just sit on the ground.

Once he was settled, he looked up at his son, still waiting for him to answer. "Danny? What happened?"

"B-broken!" Danny looked down at the stress-ball he held in his hands. He squeezed it with his right hand angrily and looked back up. "Everything long… wrong. I'm broken."

Larry felt his heart ache as Danny yelled. He moved closer and rested his hand on his son's knee. "You're not broken Danny. Not in anyway that can't be fixed. It's just going to take some time…"

"No!" Danny shook his head, his jaw clenched tightly. "N-no no no! Nothing comes ri-right." He dropped his head, muttering again about being broken.

Larry got onto his knees so that he could reach Danny's face. He put his hand on his son's cheek and for a fraction of a second felt Danny relax into it before he pulled away and swatted at Larry's hand.

"Danny come on, you have to give this all time. You've been talking for what? A couple of hours?"

"F-fasia. That what K-kate said. Broken!" Danny smacked himself in the head to emphasize the last word.

"Aphasia." Larry sighed quietly as he reached for Danny's hand, trying to keep him from hitting himself again. "Not broken, just…" he thought how to put it without actually using the words brain damage. "Hurt. But it will heal."

Danny pulled his hand away and shook his head. Without warning, he launched the stress-ball across the courtyard and started moving himself away from his father and further down the pathway.

As Larry opened his mouth to call after him, he heard the door open and close behind him.

"Larry."

He closed his mouth and turned to find Kate standing there, her arms wrapped around herself to keep warm.

"Let him go. He'll be okay."

"What the hell was that?" Larry advanced on the smaller woman, the tears in his eyes ready to spill over.

Kate frowned at the pain she saw. "He's going to be fine Larry. It's very disappointing to find that something you take for granted, like speaking, is now such a struggle. I'm sure he expected that once he actually got that first word out, everything would be fine."

"He's never had a temper like that Kate. Never." Larry turned and watched Danny, still retreating away from them. Turning back to her, he shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Issues controlling anger are the most common symptom with cases of brain damage." She reached over and rested her hand on his shoulder, letting it slide down his arm to the elbow. "I've seen it in my sessions with him recently. Never to this extent, but this was a big blow to him." She sighed and pulled her hand back, wrapping her arms around herself again. "He's scared Larry."

Kate met Larry's eyes. "You can't get mad at him or frustrated with him. You need to remember that you are the only familiar face here for him and he needs you, no matter what he may make you think."

Larry bit his lip and slowly nodded his head. As he wiped at his eyes, Kate marveled at how much Danny resembled his father, something she hadn't noticed before.

"Please have faith that we will help him through all of this." Kate waited until Larry met her eyes again. "He's got a lot of work ahead of him, but I believe he can and will do it."

Larry swallowed hard and turned once again to face the direction Danny had disappeared in. After a minute, he turned back to Kate. "I'm in for the long haul, so he has no choice."

Kate smiled tentatively and nodded her head.

"I need to go make a phone call." With one more glance in the other direction, Larry headed back inside.


	15. 15

A late holiday present for everyone. ;)

As always, thanks for all of the great reviews! I love reading them all and they certainly help my muse continue to work.

I'm off to do some more writing.

* * *

-Chapter 15-

Ed Deline hung up his phone and growled deep in his throat. "Another dead end." Rubbing his hands roughly over his face, he pushed his chair back from his desk, stood up, and began pacing around his office.

It was beginning to seem like every contact he had ever made in his life was dried up or wrong for what he needed. He had been spending any extra time he could spare making phone calls trying to find out exactly what had happened to Danny. It wasn't that it was something that they really needed to know for any reason; it wouldn't make any difference in what was happening now, but it was something for him to do and feel like he was helping.

In a frustrated moment the week before, Ed had even tried the direct route and called his contact in the Marines; the same one who had told him where Danny was going to be shipped to when he was first recalled. That had led him nowhere, other than finding out that Danny was still listed as being on active duty. Classified had been the word that had stopped that idea; classified at a level way over Ed's head.

Ed sighed and headed back to his desk as his phone began ringing.

---------------

The small scuffle over who had been at a particular slot machine first was typical of how Mike's day was going. He rubbed the back of his neck and wandered away as two uniformed security guards escorted the offending patrons from the casino.

As he passed by the door to Cup A Joe's, Mike glanced inside and smiled as he saw Delinda and Mary picking up large cups of coffee and heading for one of the small tables by the window. After glancing at his watch, he decided that he had time to take a break with his friends.

"Hello ladies!" He said as he pulled a chair from a nearby table and swung it around, straddling it backwards.

"Hi Mike." The two women greeted him with smiles.

"How's your day going?" Mike rested his elbows on the back of the chair and settled in.

Mary shrugged, her eyes somewhat distant. "Just getting ready for tonight's concert."

"That's right," Mike perked up some. "Tonight's Duran Duran! You ah, gonna need some extra security?"

Laughing softly, Mary nodded. "I'm sure I can get you in, even without forcing you to work."

"Great, that's great. Thanks Mary." Mike grinned at her and looked over to address Delinda. "And what about you Ms. Deline?"

"Nothing unusual." She sipped her coffee.

Mike groaned as his phone began to ring. Glancing at the caller ID, he frowned. "I have to take this. Mary, I'll get in touch with you later about the show." He flipped open his phone as he walked out of the coffee shop.

As soon as he was gone, Delinda put her cup down and leaned forward some. "Alright, spill. What's going on with you today?"

Mary looked up in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

Delinda reached over to stop her from picking up her own cup. "You are just about the only person not excited about Duran Duran being here tonight. Why?"

Staring down at the table, Mary sighed and swallowed hard. "It's Danny. Okay?" She looked up at her friend. "I know what you're going to say, 'it's always Danny' and I'm sorry…"

"Don't be sorry, Mary." Delinda moved her hand from the lid of the coffee cup to Mary's hand, where she squeezed it gently. "We all miss him."

"I know. I wish that Larry would call more often. I'm so worried about him."

Delinda frowned softly and nodded in agreement.

As the two women sat quietly together, a young woman with a clipboard in her hand rushed over.

"Ms. Connell? The band is here and they're asking for you."

"Alright, thank you Natalie." With one last squeeze of Delinda's hand, Mary stood up and returned to her work.

---------------

After several hours of chasing down a couple that Mike discovered had been scamming people at the buffet, Ed was missing having his protégé to send on these escapades. He let himself fall back on his couch and draped his arm across his eyes. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

He let out a few choice curse words as the phone on his desk began ringing. Finally standing up, Ed walked over and picked up the phone. "What?" he barked angrily.

"Ed?" The voice on the other end of the line sounded confused.

"Larry? Man, I'm sorry." Ed settled himself in his desk chair and closed his eyes.

Larry laughed and leaned against the wall outside of the rehab. He zipped his jacket the rest of the way up. "It's okay. Rough day?"

Ed grunted in response. "You could say that. What about you, what's going on?"

"Well, I have some good news, some bad news, and a favor to ask."

"Alright, I'm listening." He hit the privacy button on his computer and watched as his windows were covered.

"We finally got Danny speaking."

"I hope that's the good news!" Ed laughed.

Larry found himself laughing along. "Yeah, that is. But we also have a full diagnosis for him now as well. He's got something called aphasia. Basically, his speech is all messed up," he sighed and frowned. "He's not handling it so well."

"Larry, I'm sorry." Ed took a moment to let the news sink in and process what it could mean in the long run. "Is it permanent?"

Larry shook his head unconsciously. "No. Although, the doctor isn't saying for sure how much he'll be able to recover. She said the range is from very little to all the way. Right now, he's, well, he's scared. He doesn't want to do much, but we'll get him back on track."

Ed sat quietly, again processing information. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked softly.

"Well, things are getting a little tight and we're not going to be coming home anytime soon… so I've talked to Danny's landlord and given up the lease on his apartment. I hate to ask it, but is there anyway you can go over, maybe with Mike and Mary and the rest of them, and pack up his things? All of it can go into the basement of my place."

"Of course, Larry. We'll take care of it this weekend. Is there anything else you guys need? Money, anything?"

"No, I have a couple of temporary job aspects out here, so we'll be better once I get that settled." Larry stopped and thought for a minute. "Well, maybe you could box up some more of Danny's clothes and send them out here. It's incredible how fast he's going through them. I can't keep up with the laundry."

Ed laughed. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Look, I hate to ask such a major favor and then run. But it's getting late out here and Danny is still off sulking somewhere on the grounds. I want to find him before he freezes." Larry pushed himself back to his full height and began walking.

"It's alright. I understand. Tell Danny we all miss him and we're thinking about him, and I'll get his apartment taken care of."

"Thanks a lot Ed. I really appreciate it. Just throw his copy of the house keys into the box with his clothes."

The men ended their conversation and Ed hung up the phone. He stared down at the notes he had made and shook his head.

---------------

Mary stood in the back of the theater where Duran Duran was entertaining the sold out crowd. Just ahead of her she watched as her four friends danced and laughed. Occasionally Delinda or Sam or Nessa would glance back in her direction and she plastered a smile on her face and waited patiently until she could sneak out.

When she closed her eyes and let her mind go blank, she found herself enjoying the concert; they were one of her favorite groups after all. Then she would open her eyes, sigh deeply, and know that he should be here with her.

Sensing someone standing next to her, Mary's breath caught slightly and she looked over to see Ed watching her.

"Come on!" he yelled over the loud music as he gently took hold of her elbow.

Grateful for the excuse to leave early, Mary followed her boss until they stopped at a table in a quiet corner of Bella Sera.

Mary studied Ed's face for a minute as he busied himself ordering glasses of water for the two of them.

"You heard from Larry, didn't you?"

Ed blinked in surprise. "Yes, I did."

"So what is it?" Mary's gaze fell as she unconsciously tapped her fingers against the edge of the table.

"Larry needs us to pack up Danny's apartment and move all of his things into Larry's house." He reached across the table and quieted her hand. Once she had finally met his eyes, he continued. "He's okay. It's just not going to be anytime soon that he'll be able to come home."

Mary nodded. "I need to see him for myself Ed."

"I know that sweetheart. That's why I was thinking, instead of mailing a box to Larry with the things he asked for, you and I could just fly out there."

Her eyes immediately brightened. "Yes! Oh Ed…" she trailed off, suddenly worried. "What's he going to look like? What if he doesn't…?"

"He will remember you Mary. I promise." He put his hand over hers and patted it gently. "I'm sure he looks alright now, but it's been a while since I've seen him too."

Mary smiled again. "When?"

"Well, I thought we'd get the gang out to his apartment and pack it up this weekend. Once everything is moved into the house, we can go."

Nodding, Mary realized from the crowds that the concert had ended. "I have to go finish up with the band." She stood up.

Ed stood up to meet her, kissing her cheek.

"Thanks Ed." Mary ran off through the mass of people heading toward the casino floor.

Picking Mike's face out in the crowd, Ed waved him over. "I hope you haven't been drinking. I need you to stay for a few more hours."

"Ed, man, I…" Mike realized his protests were fruitless as Ed had already walked away. Sighing, he headed for the surveillance office.


	16. 16

First off - A great big, huge, huge, huge thank you to my new beta reader! I love ya and you can never disagree too much. Look at what you did for this chapter alone.

And of course, as always, thank you to everyone who responded/reviewed and pushed to find out when the next one was coming.

As far as the next one after this, I'm starting my next new show this week and it will leave little free time through the 12 hour days at the start. But as soon as we're up and running and settled, the next chapter is nearly finished already.

Please leave feedback... it keeps my muses happy and working, not taking vacations without telling me!

* * *

-Chapter 16-

Larry sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he walked down the hallway. His hands were still cold from working outside all morning, even though the rest of him had begun to thaw. Feeling another hand on his neck, he turned, surprised.

Kate chuckled softly. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"You need to make more noise when you walk." Larry smiled. "But I appreciate it." He dropped his own hand and let her continue massaging his sore neck.

"How's the new job?" she smiled.

After thinking for a minute, Larry nodded. "It's alright. Nothing I haven't done before, but the cold weather thing, you were right, I'm less enamored with it now that I'm out in it for hours at a time trying to use tools when I can't feel my hands."

Kate laughed. "You need better gloves."

Continuing down the hallway, the pair turned into to Danny's new room, a private one in a better section of the hospital. It was currently empty since he was down at physical therapy with Shawn.

Larry looked down at the messy bed and frowned before straightening the sheets and sitting down on it. He pulled his jacket and hat off before resting his elbows on his knees and running his hands over his face. Looking up at Kate, he rested his chin on his fist. "Do you think, in any way, his acting out has to do with me not being here all the time now?"

Kate sighed. "I wish I could say for sure, but it could be." She hated being the cause of the look on Larry's face at that moment. "Larry, he understands this all. He knows that you are living just down the road now and when you're gone in the mornings, he's busy with Shawn and me the whole time anyway. Honestly, I believe that this has more to do with his frustration and anger at his condition."

---------------

Danny frowned, closed his eyes, and used all of his strength to throw the ball in his right hand at Shawn. When he opened his eyes again, the room was fuzzy and his head started to hurt. The rubber ball hit the ground two feet in front of Shawn and bounced away.

"N-no more! I'm ended." Danny shook his head. "Done!"

Ignoring him, Shawn chased after the ball and pulled it out of the corner before turning to find Danny yawning. "You tired or am I boring you?" The only response he got was another glare.

"Alright, maybe it's time we tried another approach. Come over here." He walked over to the other side of the room and turned to wait for Danny.

Watching as his patient reluctantly made his way over, Shawn realized that he probably was just tired and that had been compounding all of his problems, making him grouchier than normal.

"Alright," He put a smile on his face and got back to work. "You've got this nifty new piece on the bottom of your cast so that you can bear weight on it. So let's give it a shot. We've been working up to this for a while. Show me what you can do."

Shawn lined Danny's chair up with the equipment in front of him and watched as he reached up and gripped the bars on either side. Pulling himself up, Danny put weight on his right foot as Shawn pulled his chair back out of the way. Moving around to the side, Shawn put his hand over Danny's weaker right one, to give him a little more support and watched as he shifted his weight tentatively to his left foot.

Even though most of his weight was still being supported by his arms, Danny was on his feet, under his own power, for the first time in almost four months.

---------------

Larry slowly made his way out the door of Danny's room. The afternoon had been eventful, to put it mildly. His head had been spinning from Kate's further explanations of how to help control Danny when his rage got the best of him, and he was grateful to see Shawn appear in the doorway asking them to come downstairs.

Safely hidden in the doorway, Larry had watched as his son unsteadily hobbled back and forth between the two waist height bars. Shawn told him that once Danny was steadier with this, they could try him on crutches. At the mention of the possibility of a walker, Danny had thrown a fit and Larry got to practice his new techniques for calming him down.

In the two weeks since Danny had started talking again, his mood, demeanor, and even it seemed, his personality had changed. This worried Larry even though Kate and the rest of Danny's doctors assured him that there was nothing to be alarmed about.

With the diagnoses of the aphasia, the last of his medical puzzle had fallen into place. Shawn was able to push much harder without fear of causing any more problems because of something unknown. Kate had specific goals to work for now and even though she had had more setbacks than anything else, she could also push harder.

All of that had led to Danny being tired more of the time. He had started suffering from confusion when he woke up because he was coming from such a deep sleep, and this had become a large new problem. With the increased anger and the increased inability to control his anger, he often woke up and lashed out if he didn't have time to reorient himself. Whenever Danny got overtired, his speech seemed to fail. His stutter got worse and more often he wasn't aware when he was getting words wrong.

Kate had warned Larry that things would get worse before they truly got better, but he hadn't believed her. He did now. He had recently spent time learning how to physically restrain his son, who was only getting stronger everyday. He swallowed his own anger at the situation and did his best to help Danny get through it all.

Despite all of that, he couldn't help the nagging fear in the back of his mind that this had all started when he had taken the job at the construction company. He had also moved into a nearby apartment when the doctors had said it was time for Danny to be in a private room. For the first time in four months, Larry wasn't nearby all the time and he worried that it was when Danny needed him most.

Larry stopped his dazed walking when he arrived at the main entrance of the rehab center. He busied himself with bundling up to go out in the cold.

"Larry?"

He barely had time to glance up and register who had called his name before he was enveloped in tight hug. A smile found its way onto his face as he was released.

"Mary." He looked around and found Ed leaning against the main desk, apparently telling the woman there that they no longer needed her help. The older man reached down and picked up a large box at his feet.

"We decided that we didn't trust the US mail." Ed glanced at Mary. "That was the story, right?"

She grinned and looked back at Larry. "I needed to see him. And you too." She added quickly reaching out to hug him again.

Larry kissed the top of her head. "Well, you certainly surprised me, but I'm glad to see you, both of you." He reached out to shake Ed's hand before unzipping his jacket again.

"Where were you off to? We didn't interrupt, did we?" Ed balanced the box in one hand while fishing for something in his pocket. Pulling out a set of keys, he handed them to Larry. "Before I forget."

"Thanks. I'm glad you guys could do that." Shaking his head, Larry began to lead the two back down the hallway that was nearly empty since it was the end of the day. "I was actually heading home." He stopped at the bank of elevators, pressing the up button and waiting.

Ed and Mary stopped and began unzipping their jackets and pulling off their gloves.

"Home?" Mary asked, concerned.

"The doctors said it was time; I took an apartment at a complex down the street. It's close, so I can walk over here. I got a job too. I found a company that's a lot like mine, so it's been easy."

Ed nodded. "I'm glad that worked out. You're kind of settling here, huh?"

"Yeah. Danny has ups and downs and ultimately, he's making progress, but this is going to be a long process." Larry met Mary's eyes. "You look like you're about to burst." He laughed softly and walked onto the elevator as the doors opened. "Danny's asleep, or he should be, but I'll take you up there."

After arriving at the correct floor, the group made its way through the residential wing to Danny's room. As they walked, Larry started to fill Ed in on the events of the past two weeks. Mary was trying to pay attention, but found herself anxiously reading every name listed outside of the doors as they passed. Catching only pieces of what Larry was telling Ed she found she was getting nervous. Things were going over her head as the two men talked in medical terms that they had become used to while overseas waiting for Danny to regain consciousness.

Mary finally spotted "Lt. McCoy, Daniel" next to one of the doors and stopped. Ed and Larry continued their discussion a few steps beyond and, not wanting to listen to anymore details, Mary took the box from Ed and wandered into Danny's room. As excited as she was to finally be there, she couldn't find the nerve to actually look at him, so she distracted herself by looking anywhere but at the bed. Putting the box down in a corner, she glanced around. There was nothing personal about the room, nothing that told her this was his room.

She bit her lip and finally let her eyes rest on Danny himself. He was sleeping on his back, the covers up to his waist and his casted left leg and foot thrown over the top. One hand was on his chest, the other sprawled in her direction.

He looked very different to her. He had lost a lot of his normal body weight, causing his cheeks to appear sunken in. She couldn't tell if there was still faint bruising around his eyes or if that was just from being worn out and his hair was in that odd stage of growing back that left it continually looking messy.

She smiled. Not that that was anything new for Danny.

Feeling braver, she let her smile fade and she took a step closer to the bed. She could hear him breathing softly.

She reached out her hand and tried to smooth down a piece of his wild hair. Letting her hand linger on his warm forehead for a minute, she couldn't help but say a quick thank you to whoever had protected him enough to get him out of the war and back here.

Slightly more comfortable still, Mary sat lightly on the edge of his bed. She let her hand slide down his jaw line and then rest on his cheek. She was so content just being by his side that she didn't notice him begin to stir.

Danny opened his eyes. His vision was blurry with sleep and his head was pounding. Feeling someone touching his face and then picking up his hand, he struggled to clear the fog and figure out what was happening. Unable to tell what they were doing, he felt his anger rise and he panicked.

Mary was letting a finger of one hand run lightly over the back of Danny's hand while she held it in her other. Her smile had returned and she turned her face toward his.

Without warning and with incredible speed, Danny pulled his hand from her grip. He closed his eyes, hoping the confusion would go away, but when he opened them again he felt like he was seeing red and reacted on instinct.

He lashed out, hitting at anything he could reach, screaming "no" over and over as loud as he could the whole time.

Stunned, Mary sat frozen in place, horrified by what was happening. Things seemed to move in slow motion.

One of Danny's flying hands hit home and he grabbed onto her arm, not letting go.

Snapped out of her daze, Mary began pleading with him as his fingers dug into her skin. "Danny please! That hurts! Please let go."

In the next instant, Larry was there, on the other side of the bed. He climbed onto the mattress and put his arms around his son's torso, forcing him back and away from Mary.

One swift pull got him to release Mary's arm and she backed away from the bed, tears running down her cheeks.

Danny continued to yell and thrash as Larry pinned him down on the bed. Once he had him physically under control, Larry started speaking calmly and evenly, trying to get Danny's attention.

"Hey! Hey, Danny-boy come on. Listen to me. You're okay. Everything is alright. Calm down."

Danny's motion slowed and eventually he locked eyes with his father, the confusion clearing in recognition. Larry let up his grip and then released his son.

"Everything is alright." He brushed his hand through Danny's hair. "You're okay."

As Larry continued to calm Danny, Mary backed herself to the doorway and into Ed, who had stopped there to watch the scene unfolding. She broke out of her trance as she bumped into Ed and turned, running down the hallway. Ed tried to grab her, but missed and let her go, knowing she wouldn't go very far. He turned his attention back to what was going on in the room.

Larry had calmed Danny down and was adjusting the covers over him. Ed looked at Danny and was struck with the look of absolute terror on Danny's face.

Danny started shaking his head. "N-no… no… no…" Unable to get the words out, he pointed toward where Mary had been, his eyes still locked on his father.

"What is it Danny?" Larry looked around for Mary, realizing that she was gone.

"No…" Danny closed his eyes and struggled for the word. "Hurt."

Larry realized what he was trying to say and put his hand on the top of Danny's head to stop him from shaking it anymore.

"I know, you didn't mean to hurt her. I'll find her and tell her. Don't worry." Larry looked at Danny curiously. "Do you know who that was?"

Danny shook his head and Larry smoothed his son's hair before turning away.

The fear still present across his face, Danny reached out his hand for Larry.

"No!"

Larry turned back to him. "What is it?" he asked, clearly confused.

Danny was now struggling for every word. "N-no… don't…" He closed his eyes in frustration. "Don't weave." He said, opening his eyes again and staring up at his father in expectation.

Larry shook his head lightly. "I don't think that was the right word buddy."

Danny frowned and sighed. He took a deep breath and looked at Larry again. "S-stay."

"You want me to stay with you?"

Danny nodded vigorously, the fear in his eyes ebbing slightly.

"Okay, of course." Larry helped Danny shift onto his side and then lay down next to him. He wrapped his arms around his son and held him tightly like a small child.

Danny relaxed back against this father, a wave of exhaustion washing over him. He let his eyes close and fell back to sleep.

Larry was so focused on Danny that he didn't notice Ed back out of the room and disappear down the hallway, a grim expression on his face.


	17. 17

I apologize for the huge delay in getting this chapter out. It's been written for a while, but with my newest job going so well, I haven't had much time to work on the finishing touches to this.

As always, I thank you all for your reviews, replies, and questioning of what was happening. I really, truly appreciate all of it!

That said, I have very little written of the next chapter and my show is still running. We close at the end of the month and until then, I probably will not have much, if any, time to write. So there is going to be another gap of time between updates, but there will be more updates. I am committed to finishing this story, I promise.

-Chapter 17-

Having found an empty lounge area, Mary was curled up on a couch, her face buried in her hands. Ed quietly entered the room and watched her.

"Mary?" He spoke softly before clearing his throat, hoping to hide his emotion.

She only shook her head and tried to make herself smaller. Sighing, Ed walked over and sat down next to her. He rested his hand lightly on her shoulder, but she jumped and quickly shrugged him off.

"Sweetheart, please." He smiled softly as he was rewarded with her finally looking up.

Mary's eyes were red rimmed and her cheeks were wet with tears. Ed frowned as he noticed her absently massaging her right arm. He slowly reached for her arm.

"No. Please." Mary fought to control a new wave of tears as she tried to pull her arm from Ed.

"He didn't mean to, Mary." Ed's voice was filled with emotion as he pulled up her sleeve and looked at the beginnings of finger sized bruises on her arm.

Mary successfully pulled her arm away and pulled down her sleeve. "That wasn't the man that I know." She swiped at the tears continuing to roll down her face. "Why did he…" Giving up, she let Ed pull her into his arms and cried.

"Ed's right, Mary; Danny didn't mean to hurt you. He didn't know what he was doing."

The pair on the couch jumped at the sound of Larry's voice. Unsure of how long he had been standing there in the doorway, they sat up and collected themselves. Only when they seemed ready did Larry walk the rest of the way into the room.

Mary slid back on the couch and pulled her knees up in front of her, wrapping her arms around them. Larry took a seat on the table in front of her, not wanting to get too close. He was Danny's advocate in this and he knew that Ed and Mary were very shaken up by what had happened.

"It's like I was explaining to Ed before, he wakes up in this fog and unless he has a chance to pull himself out of it, he just acts on instinct. Unfortunately, his instinct right now is to protect himself at all costs." Larry frowned. "He didn't even know who was there with him, honey." Leaning forward and tentatively put his hand on hers. "He knows he did something bad and that's scaring him."

Mary rested her chin on her other knee and stared at Larry. "He was crazed Larry. I didn't see anything in his eyes that I recognized."

Nodding, Larry pulled his hand back and tried to figure out how to explain this. "He's not who he was when you last saw him. He nearly died and now he's here, someplace he doesn't know and his head isn't working how it should. He's fighting with everything in him to get back to where he was, but he's in there. I know that. I can see him." He glanced down at his watch, judging how long Danny had been asleep again. "Give him another chance. I'll be there and I promise, you'll see."

Mary bit her lip and dropped her eyes. Her voice in whisper, she spoke. "I'm scared. He hurt me." When she looked up, her eyes were once again filled with tears and she realized she was shaking.

Larry frowned, having suspected as much, and dropped his head down. He rubbed his hands over his face and closed his eyes.

Ed, having sat quietly listening the whole time, reached over and rubbed her shoulder. Looking over at Larry, he spoke. "I watched him when he was talking to you after Mary left. He looked terrified."

Larry looked up and nodded. "He doesn't have a strong control of his emotions right now. He can be very childlike at times and switches from one to another at the drop of a hat." He moved his eyes back to Mary. "But this behavior is mainly when he's tired or confused. When he's working with his therapists or hanging out with me, he's very much himself. He just needs a chance to get to that point and you'll see Mary." He dropped his head and thought about his son, sleeping down the hallway. "Don't make me tell him that it was you who he attacked and not be there for him to apologize. It will kill him."

Mary couldn't stop replaying the event over in her head, but forced herself to think of the moments before she had woken him. His calm face as he slept. How he looked different but she could see him anyway. Still shaking, Mary nodded her head slowly and looked at Larry.

"Okay." She looked over at Ed, who nodded.

"I'll come too." He squeezed her shoulder gently. "If you want me to."

Nodding again, Mary let her feet drop back to the floor and moved to the edge of the couch.

Larry reached for her hand. "God, you're shaking like a leaf. Did he really hurt you, physically?"

Mary hesitated before dropping her eyes from his, giving him his answer.

"I'm so sorry sweetheart. I shouldn't have let you go in there alone." Larry took a deep breath. "Here's what's going to happen." He reached up and made Mary look at him again. "We're going to go downstairs and get you some ice for your arm, some tea to calm you down, and let Danny sleep a little more so he isn't as tired. Then we'll all go back up together and see if he can reassure you that he's still Danny."

Larry stood up and gently pulled Mary to her feet. He put his hand on the back of her head and pulled her closer so that he could kiss her forehead.

---------------

When the trio finally returned to Danny's room more than an hour later, Mary had stopped shaking, but was still very nervous. Ed opted to let them have some time alone and went to wait in the lounge.

"Larry," Mary stopped in the hallway, next to the door. "What if it happens again?"

He took her gently by the shoulders and pulled her the rest of the way into the room. Positioning her across the room from the bed, he smiled softly. "It will be fine, because I can control him and you'll be all the way over here."

"Wait!" Mary took hold of Larry's arm as he began to walk away. "You're just going to wake him up? I thought all of this happened because I woke him up before?"

Larry stopped and turned back to her. Holding her hands in his, he nodded slowly. "And it did. But I know how to wake him up, if that makes sense. I know what to do to help him reconnect. And I know what to do if he has a hard time."

Mary couldn't help but smile as she nodded her understanding and Larry put his hand against her cheek. "You come over if you want to."

Larry turned and walked over to the bed, where Danny was curled onto his side sleeping. Because his back was to her, she couldn't see his face as Larry worked on getting him up again.

As usual, Danny woke with a start into cloudiness and confusion. Feeling strong hands holding his, he clenched his jaw and opened his eyes. As the room refocused, he found himself looking at his father and the confusion lifted. He started to smile, but then remembered what had happened earlier.

"H-h-hurt?" Danny's speech was slow and his voice still husky with sleep.

Larry released Danny's hands and crouched down some. "Yeah, I know. She's okay."

"K.O." Danny rubbed his eyes and yawned. "W-why here? Thought you work."

Laughing softly, Larry shook his head. "No, it's late. See?" He pointed to the window. "It's dark out."

Danny glanced over and back, his face becoming more confused again. "Wha-what happening?"

"Someone wants to see you. So I need you to be awake and ready to work." Larry glanced over his son at Mary, still pinned against the opposite wall. "Are you there yet?"

Danny shook his head.

"But you're with me, right?" Larry eyed his son, watching carefully for signs of him losing control.

After thinking for a minute, Danny nodded his head. Looking up at his father, Larry could see that he was curious about what was going on.

"Come on, sit up." Larry stood up and helped Danny move.

Mary took a deep breath in as she looked between father and son. Larry was staying close to Danny, not that she thought he would be able to jump out of bed and come after her again, but she liked having him there.

As soon as Danny was turned over, he could see to the other side of the room and his eyes landed on Mary.

She met his eyes briefly before looking back to Larry, who nodded. Swallowing hard, she found his eyes again and smiled softly. "Hi Danny."

He opened his mouth but quickly closed it again and looked back toward Larry.

Larry nodded. "It's okay." Noting the fear flashing through Danny's eyes, he sat on the edge of the bed hoping to give him a little more strength.

Danny turned his head back and focused his eyes on Mary. She had her arms crossed tightly in front of her and was chewing on her lip. He couldn't figure out why she looked so scared and then in a flash he realized that she was who had been here before. The woman he had attacked was Mary.

He opened his mouth again and turned back toward his father. Larry put his hand on Danny's shoulder and nodded slightly.

"Go ahead." Larry could see that Danny recognized Mary now and kept his hand on him, just in case.

Taking several deep breaths, Danny looked back to Mary. "S-sorry…" he stopped and swallowed hard. His voice full of emotion, his words now came in a rush. "Sorry hurt you. Did-didn't mean to. S-sorry. Please n-not scared. Scared you. No. Please."

Mary's eyes filled with tears. Larry had been right, she could see him now. There was no rage or anger, just fear and worry that he had really hurt her.

Taking a few halting steps toward the bed, Mary shook her head. "Shh, no. I'm okay. I'm not scared of you."

Danny stopped and looked up at her. "No?"

She smiled softly. "No."

"Wood." He smiled at her.

Laughing quietly, Larry stood up and kissed the top of Danny's head. "He means good, by the way."

Mary found herself smiling as she looked at Danny smiling. The fear was gone from his eyes and his face was relaxed. Breaking her gaze, she looked up at Larry. He mouthed the words 'Are you alright?' and she nodded.

"I'm going to go find Ed." Larry took a few steps toward the door.

"Ed?" Danny was watching him now.

"Yeah, he's here too." Larry watched Danny's smile return and winked at Mary before he left the room.

After staring at the door for a minute, Danny turned his head to face Mary. She still stood several feet away from his bed.

"Y-you and Ed… come here?"

Mary nodded and took another step closer. "Yes. We came to bring you more clothes…" she smiled shyly and looked down at her folded hands. "And I really wanted to see you."

When she looked up again, Danny was still staring at her.

Chewing on her lip, Mary continued. "Do you remember… before? Before you left?"

Danny's eyes shifted to the wall behind her and he opened his mouth, but closed it before saying anything. When he found her eyes again, he nodded.

Mary found herself smiling. "Do you know that I followed you to the airport that night?"

His eyes widened in surprise and he shook his head. Mary came closer still and softly sat on the edge of his bed, facing him.

"I found you, but I didn't know if you would want to see me there. So I didn't say anything. But I watched you get on the plane and leave." The memory brought the tears back to Mary's eyes and she closed them to keep her emotion in check.

"Should have." Danny's voice was soft and hoarse.

She blinked and looked up at him. His face was serious and his eyes leveled steadily at her own. Smiling weakly, Mary was the one to break the eye contact. She shifted on the bed and hooked the heels of her boots over the edge of the bed frame.

"So, what's it like here?" She smiled and looked back at him.

Danny frowned slightly and shook his head. "H-hard." As he struggled for the words, he watched Mary look around the room. "Tell m-me about home."

Happy to have a neutral topic, Mary began telling him about the events going on at home. She told him stories about Mike, Delinda, Nessa, and Sam and how they all sent their love to him. Over the next hour, she found herself doing all of the talking. Occasionally he would say something but she found that she didn't know where to look or what to do while waiting for him to get the words right. It made her slightly uncomfortable because she didn't know how to help him.

After telling him a particularly funny story about keeping Mike and Sam from snooping through his belongings while cleaning out his apartment, Mary noticed that Danny was struggling now to stay awake. Smiling softly, she stood up. When he quickly opened his eyes and attempted to look alert, she laughed.

"Danny, you need to sleep. I can't sit and talk your ear off all night." Mary moved closer to the head of the bed and helped him arrange the covers over himself.

"W-will you stay? Ti-till I sleep." Danny had reached out and taken her hand so incredibly gently, as if he was afraid to hurt her again.

"Of course I will." Mary squeezed his hand and sat back down.

Without the pressure of having to speak, Danny let his eyes close. Not having to watch him work so hard to communicate, Mary found herself staring. She took in every detail of his face once again.

When it was finally obvious that he was soundly sleeping, Mary stood up. She turned back toward him and frowned. Brushing her hand back through his hair, she leaned down and kissed him lightly on the forehead, and again, barely touching his lips.

---------------

"He asleep?" Larry stood up from the table in the cafeteria where he and Ed were having coffee.

Mary nodded. "Yeah." She put her purse on a chair and went to get herself a cup.

Ed watched her walk away and looked back at Larry. "She looks happier. I think, despite what happened before, she's glad she came."

"I hope so. I would hate for anything to happen to their friendship now. He needs to know that they're all back there pulling for him." Larry rubbed his forehead wearily and closed his eyes.

As soon as they heard Mary approaching, both men looked up and smiled.

Looking between the two of them, Mary shook her head. "You two stop, alright. I'm fine." She sat down, wrapping her hands around the warm plastic cup. She took a sip and looked across the table at Larry. "He didn't talk a lot. A few words here and there, mostly I did the talking. I told him about everyone at home."

Larry nodded and drained the last of his coffee. "I'm sure he enjoyed that." Noticing that Mary was now staring at the table and picking at a chip in the wood with her fingernail, he reached over and covered her hand with his. "Everything alright, sweetheart?"

After a pause of complete stillness, Mary looked back at Larry and shook her head. "It's just… he's…" she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "He's so bad. I didn't expect all of this. I don't know what I expected, but not this. Listening to him trying to speak and praying that his anger didn't come back…" She trailed off and frowned.

Larry squeezed her hand and nodded. "It is hard. But he's trying. Every time he speaks he gets a little bit better. And there are setbacks. You saw one of them tonight. But I can't let him give up, so I take care of him."

"Could this be forever?" Mary's words came in a rush, surprising herself and the two men at the table.

Ed looked up from the inside of his coffee cup, where he had been focusing his attention since Mary had returned. Interested in the answer, he looked over at Larry.

Larry seemed to struggle with the question. Not really wanting to say it out loud, he just nodded before continuing. "Yes, it could be." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "There is the possibility that he could just stop progressing at any point. That's why I keep pushing him. Why all of his doctors and therapists keep pushing him." He looked back down and met first Ed's eyes and then Mary's. "I believe he will get better."

"Let me stay and help. There must be something I can do here. The more people helping him the better, right?" Mary leaned forward expectantly.

"Mary, no. You have things you have to do in Las Vegas, you have a life there."

"I want to!"

Larry shook his head and stared her right in the eye, hoping she would see how serious he was. "No. It's not your job to give up your life for Danny. It's mine. You can come and visit anytime."

Mary opened her mouth to protest again.

"I think you'd be more of a distraction to him." Larry's honesty stopped Mary and she slowly closed her mouth. "I think you being here now and sitting there with him tonight… well, I think you helped him remember what he's working toward. With just me and him here, we've gotten wrapped up in our own little world." He smiled. "Which, I have to admit, I kind of like. Danny and I haven't been very close since before he graduated from high school and this is a horrible way for us to reconnect, but it's happened."

Ed smiled and chuckled into his coffee cup, finishing the now cold drink. "You don't want to share."

"That's not entirely true." Larry laughed.

"I know." Ed nodded, still smiling. "I think you might be right though." He looked over at Mary, who looked very disappointed. "You have always been a distraction for Danny. Don't think I don't see what happens in my casino." He reached over and rested his hand lightly on her forearm. "The jet is at your disposal. You come out here anytime and remind him of home."

"And point out to me how much better he is every time you come. I don't see the little things sometimes." Larry nodded as he spoke.

Mary stared down at the table top for a few minutes. When she finally looked up, she sniffled and wiped her thumbs underneath her eyes. "Alright." She put a smile on her face. "I'm just worried."

"As am I; everyday. But he's making progress. I promise." Larry smiled at Mary.

"What about you?" She met his eyes and bit her lip. "Isn't there anything I can do for you?"

Larry just shook his head. "I'm alright. Now that I know I'm not going to lose him, I can handle the rest of it."


	18. Author's Note

Due to a rash of INCREDIBLY rude and uncalled for anonymous replies left on this story, I will not be posting the remaining chapters of it here. I did indeed promise to complete the story, and I will, but there is such a thing as real life. I am not a student with plenty of free time. I am an adult with a job and responsibilities that come before writing a fanfic story.

I thank everyone who has taken the time to leave wonderful reviews that have encouraged me to write more. To those few who feel I OWE them something… get a life! Who do you think you are?


	19. Update

I wanted to let everyone know that a new chapter of this story has been posted. If you are interested in reading it and don't already know where to find it, please sign in here and send me a message. I will respond to you with the site you can find the story on. I would still love to know what you all think of it, especially because it's taken me so long to get through it.

I do really appreciate all of the kind replies left here for me. Unfortunately, the rude replies also continued, forcing me to not allow anonymous comments anymore.

Perhaps once the story is completed, I will post all of the remaining chapters here. I will have to decide about that when the time comes.

**Edit:** If you have already asked for the site link and received an answer from me without a link, please let me know. I forgot how this site edits e-mails sent from it. Thanks!


	20. Chapter 18

Hi everyone,

After continuing to read reviews from people here and getting amazing response to wanting to know where the story was posted, I have decided to post the remaining chapters here. POW was completed earlier this week. I'm going to post the rest of the chapters two at a time and should have them all up by the beginning of next week at the latest. There is also the possibility that there will be a sort of extra coming in the near future, but I don't want to spoil the surprise.

As for the reviews that originally started this whole mess, well, I have learned. I won't be allowing anonymous reviews ever again and any stories I post in the future will be completed before they ever show up on here.

I want to thank all of you who hung in with me on this story. It took me nearly three years to complete and is the longest thing I have ever written. I'm very proud of this story! So, big thank yous to Em and Elyse and to all of you who have left me incredible reviews along the way.

Thanks!

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-Chapter 18-

Larry, Kate, and Shawn stood watching Danny hobble across the physical therapy room on his crutches.

"Since Ed and Mary left it's like he's spiraled downward in some ways, while he's climbed steadily up in others."

Kate looked over at Larry. "He's still not talking to anyone else?"

Larry frowned and nodded. "Yeah, it seems that he's only speaking to the three of us."

"And at times I have to fight to get more than one word answers." Shawn turned his head without taking his eyes from his patient.

"I took him to the hospital yesterday so that they could do some x-rays on his leg and he wouldn't say a word to anyone. I had to do all of the talking." Larry moved his eyes from his son and looked over at Shawn. "Did you get the reports from yesterday? They said they would send them over."

Shawn nodded. "I did. Did they talk to you about the pins?"

"Only briefly. The doctor said that he's sure some of them will be coming out."

"Yeah." Shawn nodded again and looked back at Danny, now going back the other way across the room. "I would guess about half of them will be able to come out. They'll probably wait until the cast is off before starting to talk about surgery."

"How long do you think that will be?"

Shawn shrugged. "Not that much longer. It was a bad break, but after looking at the x-rays, I'd say, another couple of weeks."

Larry smiled. "One less thing for him to complain about. I found him with a ruler jammed in the end of his cast this morning."

"I-it itched!" Danny had stopped moving and was leaning on his crutches staring at the trio across the room from him.

"Nonetheless." Larry grinned as he looked over at Kate. "It was returned to the nurses' desk."

"Keep moving!" Shawn waved a hand in Danny's direction and glanced at the clock. "We have another ten minutes. You keep going for five more and I'll help you out with that itching problem."

Danny shifted his weight and started across the room once more.

"I think I'm going to give him clearance to use the crutches full time now. He's really steady on them…"

Danny paused to push his hair out of his eyes and lost his balance. One crutch fell to the floor as he swung around the other one and landed with a crash on the floor.

Shawn made a face before walking over to make sure that Danny was alright. "On the condition that you do something about this." He crouched down in front of his patient and pushed Danny's hair back. "This is going to be a problem. And despite my appearance, this is still a military hospital."

Danny frowned and shoved one of his crutches away angrily.

"I'll bring him down to the barber soon." Larry looked pointedly at his son, who was glaring up at him.

Shawn nodded as he retrieved the crutch and helped Danny back to his feet. "You need to be able to see without obstruction or this will keep happening."

Danny took the crutch back and settled himself on them before moving away from the group observing.

After another minute of watching, Kate put her hand on Larry's arm and gestured toward the door. Larry nodded and looked back at Danny. "I'll see you back at your room."

Danny didn't respond and Shawn just waved, again not taking his eyes from his patient.

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Kate sat down on a bench under a window in the hallway and watched the snow falling in the courtyard.

"It has been more years than I care to admit since I last saw snow." Larry said as he handed her a cup of coffee and joined her.

Kate smiled appreciatively and sipped her drink. "I hate to stay in doctor mode, but I'm more than a little worried."

Larry nodded and drank from his own cup. "I know. I have faith in him though. Whatever is going on, he'll get over it."

"He just better do it sooner rather than later. I don't want to keep fighting him to make progress."

"I'll talk to him." Larry smiled and leaned against the window.

The pair sat in silence, both watching the snow accumulate.

"You want to go play in the snow?" Kate grinned over her cup at Larry.

"I take it we're out of doctor mode?"

Kate nodded and stood up. Larry finished the rest of his coffee and followed her out the door.

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Mary leaned back on her couch and pulled her legs up in front of her. "It wasn't anything like I expected." She shook her head. "I don't know what I expected…"

Delinda nodded her head and swirled the wine around in the glass she was holding. "But I can't even begin to imagine Danny attacking you."

"He wasn't…" She began defending him and stopped, sighing. "He was, but he was just so out of it. Even later when he was really awake, he wasn't really there. He couldn't talk to me or wouldn't or, I don't know."

"What did his Dad say?" Delinda finished her wine and stood up, taking hers and Mary's glass to refill.

Mary stood up and followed Delinda into the kitchen. "He said that he's getting better, but they just don't know how far he'll go with the speech." Mary took her glass and drank some of the red wine. Still staring down into the liquid, she whispered. "I don't know if I can see him like that again."

Frowning, Delinda closed the distance between them and rubbed Mary's back softly. "Yes, you can."

Mary sniffled and looked up, smiling weakly. "I'm glad we finally made the time to hang out."

Delinda nodded and headed back for the couch. "I've been dying to ask you about the trip since you got back, but you didn't really look like you wanted to talk about it."

"Didn't you ask your Dad?"

"Like he's going to give me a straight answer about Danny!" Delinda laughed. "He's totally freaked out, he's just better at hiding it than we are."

The girls sat down on the couch again and sipped at their wine. "Have you talked to Danny's dad since you got back?"

Mary shook her head. "It's been two weeks since we left and I'm afraid to call."

"You'll call when you're ready."

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"He's really very stubborn for someone who is in his situation." Larry shrugged.

Shawn sighed and rubbed his forehead.

The two men watched as a pair of orderlies tended to Danny. He had slipped on his crutches again and was obviously in pain.

One of the two men looked over and caught Shawn's eye. "I think his shoulder's dislocated. We'll take him over to the medical wing."

Shawn nodded and before long Danny had been moved out of the room.

Shaking his head, Shawn looked over at Larry. "I don't understand. Is it that he doesn't want his hair cut?"

"No." Larry frowned. "I told him he had to take care of it himself. I was hoping it would encourage him to talk to someone else. That backfired."

"Obviously." Shawn smiled slightly.

"I'll handle it."

Shawn nodded and headed down the hallway to check on Danny.

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Larry sat in a chair with his feet up on Danny's empty bed. The room was quiet except for the shower running in the attached bathroom. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear the shower stop running and jumped slightly when the door opened and the nurse came out.

"How'd it go?" Larry asked as he stood up.

"He's clean. His cast is dry."

"Did he talk to you at all?"

"Nope. Sorry." She handed Larry a towel and left the room.

Sighing deeply, Larry walked over and leaned against the door frame. Danny looked at him in the mirror, his hand full of shaving cream.

"Need some help?"

Danny nodded.

Larry walked in the rest of the way and started helping his son shave. "How's your shoulder?"

Danny shrugged one shoulder in response. "Hurts."

They finished the rest of their task in silence. Leaning against the counter, Larry watched Danny rinse his face. He leaned over and brushed some of his son's hair back from his forehead.

Danny met his eyes. "N-need haircut."

Larry smiled and nodded. "Yes, you do."

"You come."

Continuing to nod, Larry sat back again. "I will. But Danny, we have to get past this. You have to talk to more people. The idea of this place is to get you to be ready to live on your own. Shawn, Kate, and I are not always going to be here to talk for you."

Danny glared at his father and then stared down at his feet.

Picking up a brush from the counter, Larry held it out toward Danny. "Here."

Danny didn't move, just continued to stare a hole in the floor.

Sighing, Larry started brushing his son's hair. "I'm so glad we've made it to age four."

When he finished, Larry reached out and pulled Danny's chin up so that they were looking at each other again. "Please tell me what it is. Something happened when Mary and Ed were here. What was it?"

After a minute of silence Danny sighed. "Sh-she wouldn't look… look me." He frowned. "So comfortable." He shook his head roughly out of Larry's grasp. "No! N-not comfortable." He dropped his head again as his cheeks blushed, embarrassed.

"Hey." Larry spoke softly, sitting back on the counter, giving Danny some space. "You haven't been this bothered by your speech problems since this whole thing started. Why now?"

"S-she wants, w-what I was." He fought for each word, still hiding his face in his hands. "Kep-kept talking about… be-before."

Larry nodded, suddenly understanding. He reached over and put his hand on Danny's shoulder, squeezing lightly. "She was uncomfortable, which made you self-conscious. Everyone here expects you to be like this, she didn't."

Danny nodded and finally looked up, his eyes red. "I-I'm not…"

Nodding Larry stood up and helped Danny up to his feet, handing him one of his crutches. "No, you're not the same. You just need to practice more and your speaking will get easier. Then you can explain to her how you're different."

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Ed watched as Mary stormed through the main entrance of The Montecito. He frowned as he picked up the phone and called Mike in the other room.

"Mr. D.?" Mike turned to look at him through the glass doors, as usual.

"Mary will be up here in a minute. Send her right in to see me."

Mike nodded and hung up his phone, immediately turning to the screen on his computer where he could see Mary coming up the stairs to the office. He stood up and headed to the door, catching Mary as she came in.

"Where's Ed?" Mary tried to push by her friend.

"What's going on Mare?" He put his hands on her shoulders, trying to soothe her.

She shrugged him off and pushed past.

"He's in his office. Go right in." Mike sighed and rubbed his hand over his face.

Mary climbed the stairs and opened the door to her boss's office. As she closed it behind her and made her way toward his desk, Ed could see the hurt in her eyes.

"What is going on? Why did Larry say no?"

Ed shook his head, not understanding. He stood up and walked around to the other side of his desk. Taking her arm, he gently led her to the couch and sat with her. "What are you talking about?"

"I was supposed to go out to see Danny this weekend."

Ed nodded. "I know. You booked the jet."

"When I called Larry to let him know when I would be there, he said not to come." She was beginning to get more flustered.

"Did he explain why? Did something happen?" He sat forward on the couch, his hand on Mary's arm, trying to calm her down.

"He just said it was better if I didn't come!" Mary frowned. "I don't understand. We had talked about me coming and it was fine a week ago."

Ed rubbed her arm gently. "I'll call him, okay?"

Mary nodded and settled back into the couch. Ed stood up and reached for her hand. "Go wait somewhere else. Even just out with Mike. Please."

Frowning, Mary reluctantly stood up and crossed the room. She went through the doors and sat on the steps, waiting.

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When Ed finally got off the phone with Larry, Mary had disappeared. Leaving his office, Ed stopped next to Mike's desk. "Find her."

Not having to ask, Mike just nodded and pulled up Mary's ID photo, letting the program do its job. Several windows popped up on the screen and Mike found the most recent one. "She's in Mystique." He looked up to find Ed already halfway across the room.

Down in the empty club, Mary was sitting on a bar stool quietly watching Delinda take inventory. They both heard the doors open as Ed came in. He slid onto a stool and quickly kissed Delinda's cheek as she passed by. Mary turned to face him, expectantly.

"Larry says he's sorry for scaring you and for disappointing you."

Mary's face fell as she realized that Ed hadn't fixed it so she could go. She turned away again and rested her elbows on the bar.

"Apparently Danny had a really big set back after we were there last month. When Larry finally got him to tell him what the problem was…" He trailed off and sighed, rubbing his eyes with his hands. "He was really thrown by our reactions to him. He stopped talking to other people because he was embarrassed about the problems he's having. Larry thinks that he wasn't ready to have people there that expect him to be like he was before he was hurt. And they've all decided that it's better if we don't visit for a while; until he's further along."

Mary let a few tears escape and slide down her face. "It's my fault."

Delinda came out from behind the bar and put her arms around her friend. "No, it isn't."

"I told you how I didn't know where to look or what to do when he was having trouble speaking. He knew that I was uncomfortable."

Delinda rubbed Mary's back as she sat, silently staring at the bar.

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The snow was falling again as Larry made his way inside the VA and waved at the night nurse on duty. He knew that Danny would be asleep, but had found himself here at this hour more often lately. As Danny made more progress toward becoming independent, Larry took what time he could to just sit with him.

He had been in Danny's room about ten minutes when he heard the door open behind him. Sensing it was Kate, Larry didn't move.

"Do you always come in here and watch him sleep?" she whispered.

"It's like when he was a baby, always watching to make sure he's still breathing." He turned and caught her smiling. "Except now he's a six foot three Marine."

Kate laughed as quietly as she could and came over to sit on the arm of Larry's chair. Larry moved slightly to give her room and then rested his arm along her leg.

"He finally got that haircut, huh?" Kate said as she took in Danny's sleeping form and what looked suspiciously close to a mohawk haircut.

"Yeah," Larry nodded, smiling proudly. "Went all by himself too." He chuckled softly. "Shawn says at least it's out of his eyes now."

Kate smiled. "I go on vacation for a few days and look at everything I miss. He's doing better?"

"He's doing better." Larry confirmed. "He's definitely talking to more people and his speech is getting clearer."

Danny stirred and rolled over. Kate stood up and pulled Larry gently by the hand toward the door. Nodding, Larry dropped her hand and reached for his jacket. He stopped next to Danny's bed and leaned over, kissing him softly on the side of the head.

Out in the hallway, the pair walked through the silent halls toward Kate's office.

"What are you doing here so late anyway?" Larry questioned.

Kate shrugged. "I have a lot of work to catch up on and couldn't sleep. Thought I'd try to be productive."

"How long have you known that I've been here this late?" Larry smiled, but didn't look over at her.

Kate grinned. "Long enough. I never wanted to interrupt though. I love that you guys are so close now."

Larry nodded. "Me too." He paused a second and then looked over at her. "What made you come in tonight?"

"Well, I've been catching up from my vacation, like I said, and I have some news for you."

Larry raised an eyebrow questioningly and followed her into her office. "About Danny?"

She nodded and shut the door.


	21. Chapter 19

-Chapter 19-

"Hey, guess what!"

Danny was standing on a covered porch overlooking the lawn behind the rehab. He was bundled in a down jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves; all black. He barely looked up from where he was absently poking the end of one crutch into a pile of snow.

Larry walked around to the other side of him and waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?"

Danny pushed his crutch into the snow and looked up at his father. "I-I want…" he closed his eyes, struggling for the right word. "Go."

Larry frowned. "Go? Go where?"

Danny pointed one gloved hand out at the snow covered area in front of them, dropping his crutch.

"Ahh." Larry nodded. "Snow's calling at you to go play?"

Danny nodded as he steadied himself on his remaining crutch, now centered in front of him. His left foot, covered in a wool sock, held up behind him to stay dry.

"Soon enough, Danny-boy, soon enough." Larry smiled brightly. "Don't you want to hear my news?"

Danny shrugged sullenly.

Larry clapped a hand on his son's back. "You have got to get out of this funk."

Shrugging again, Danny shifted his eyes to his father's. "Wha-what news?"

Larry smiled again. "You are getting that cast off and," he paused for effect. "You are getting out of here!"

Danny's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but couldn't seem to find the words he wanted.

"I know," Larry continued. "It's great! They're going to give you a brace or something and you'll still be on crutches at first, but not much longer. And you're going to come home with me. Well, not home home, but to my apartment here. All of your doctors say you're well enough to switch to out patient. We'll bring you back each day, but at night you can come home with me."

Larry stopped talking and looked up at Danny, who was still staring at him with his mouth open, but now he looked terrified.

"Danny?"

The younger man started shaking his head, slower at first and getting faster, before stumbling backward, stepping his casted foot down in the snow on the porch. Larry reached out and grabbed him by each arm, managing to steady him and keep him upright. Once he was temporarily balanced on his crutch again, Larry grabbed a chair and sat him down.

"Danny, what's wrong? I thought you'd be thrilled to get out of here."

Danny shook his head again, more controlled this time. He reached up and pulled his hat off, running his hand nervously through his hair. "No." He closed his eyes, concentrating. "N-no leave. Do-don't want bat." He opened his eyes and looked at Larry. "That."

Larry swallowed, disappointed at his son's reaction. "Well," he sighed. "It's not going to happen this minute, so we'll talk about it later." He wanted to ask Kate about Danny's reaction before pushing it any further.

Danny seemed to relax some and reached for his crutch.

"You wanted to play in the snow?" Larry crossed the porch to pick up the crutch that had been dropped in the snow earlier, but saw Danny nod from the corner of his eye. "Good." Larry smiled as he grabbed a handful of snow and dumped it on his son's head.

Danny yelped, but finally smiled as he brushed the snow off, leaving his wet hair sticking up along the middle of his head.

Larry shook his head at the ridiculous style and found himself catching a handful of snow in the face.

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Kate stifled a laugh as she came around the corner and spotted Larry sneaking out of a supply closet with a towel in his hands. "You look like you could use some coffee."

Larry jumped, realizing he was caught. "You scared me."

Looking out the nearest window, Kate squinted at the bright sun. "Why do you look like you were caught in a rain storm?" she asked, turning back toward him.

Larry rubbed the towel over his face and shook his head. "Danny and I were having some fun in the snow. He has better aim than I remember."

"Apparently." She laughed. "How's he doing? Did you tell him he's getting out of here?"

Larry's smile faded. "Yeah, I did and he didn't take it well. Freaked out actually."

Kate looked out the window and silently chewed on her lip.

"Any thoughts?"

"Yeah," she turned back to him again. "I think it's time to bring Dr. Hammond in."

"Who's that?"

"When Danny came in here he was assigned a therapist. Of course at the time, he wasn't saying a whole lot, but Dr. Hammond has spent time observing. I think Danny has made enough progress that it's time for him to start talking about what's happened."

Larry thought about this for a while. Danny had made no effort to talk about what had happened to him. Larry wasn't really sure if he even remembered. He had done some reading on PTSD and Danny wasn't showing any of the signs. He told Kate as much.

"Regardless, he's got to talk to someone. If he doesn't remember now, he will eventually. He also needs to deal with all of this." She spread her hands to acknowledge their surroundings. "He was badly hurt and we know he's had issues with his recovery. He's made that clear without having to say anything out loud."

Larry nodded in defeat. "True."

"It's not my specialty, but I would say his reaction to his release just shows that he is comfortable here. He's scared of the outside world. It's pretty common here. Just reassure him that you'll be with him and that this doesn't mean we're all going to disappear. He'll be back here almost everyday."

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Danny slumped down on the couch and eyed the woman standing in the doorway talking to his father. She looked nice enough, but he knew she was a shrink and he didn't want to talk to her.

He shifted his gaze and looked at his father, who was watching him over the woman's shoulder. Frowning, he looked away again and stared out the window until he heard the door close.

"So Danny, we finally get some time alone to talk." Dr. Hammond sat down in a chair across from him. After realizing that she was being ignored, she reached for a file folder sitting on the edge of her desk. Flipping through it, she glanced up and caught Danny checking her out. "I'm not going to make you talk. But I am going to make you come and sit here with me several times a week."

Danny sighed and looked toward the window again. "Why?"

Dr. Hammond raised her eyebrows and closed the folder. "Why? Because you should have someone to talk to who isn't going to judge you." Noting that she had his attention, she interrupted him before he could speak. "Your father told me that you had a problem when some friends from home came to visit. Yes?"

Danny blew out a breath and clenched his jaw. After a minute he nodded.

"He said that you felt like they wanted you to be who you were before." She paused for a moment, watching him for a reaction. "And your father, he gets who you are here, but he also knows you from before. Me? I'm someone who doesn't know you either way. I can just listen and help you deal with what is happening to you and maybe with some of the things that have happened."

"Don't re-remember." Danny stared her down. Without breaking his gaze, Dr. Hammond leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.

"I believe that you will, eventually."

Danny quickly broke their eye contact and chewed on his lower lip. Feeling her hand gently rest on his knee, he looked up.

"You willing to give me a shot?"

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Larry walked slowly around the hospital room. He stopped in front of an open drawer and took out the last couple of shirts that were sitting folded inside. Closing the drawer with his hip, he transferred the shirts into the open suitcase on the bed.

After looking through the full set of drawers again, he smiled as he closed the zipper on the bag and sat down next to it. "That's everything."

"See? All packed to go." Larry jumped and turned to find Shawn standing just inside the room and Danny leaning on his crutches in the doorway.

Shawn put his hand on Danny's shoulder and smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to face Larry. "He's all yours, for tonight anyway. Keep in mind that we have a no return policy here. And the warrantee's already run out on this one, so don't expect that to work." He grinned and shook Larry's hand before squeezing past Danny and out the door.

Danny hobbled through the door and stopped again, holding up his left foot for Larry to see. "Gone."

Larry smiled as he took in the change. The cast had been removed from Danny's foot and replaced with an impressive looking brace. "Congratulations."

"Still can't talk, w-walk, on it." Danny continued making his way over to the bed and sat down.

"One step at a time, kiddo." Larry picked up the suitcase from the bed and put it on the ground by the door. "Are you ready to go?" He turned to face his son.

Danny tipped his head to the side and nodded. "Normal."

"That's right. Normal. Not living in a hospital, living with me."

Reaching for his jacket, Danny nodded again. "Ti-time to g-go home."


	22. Chapter 20

-Chapter 20-

_The hall of the rehab facility stretched out in front of him. As Danny made his way down it, he realized that he was walking without any aide. He looked down at his feet and found them intact, but securely tied into his combat boots. Returning his gaze to the hallway ahead of him, he found himself in a back hallway at the Montecito. He looked around, worried that it was completely empty and quiet. _

_Without breaking stride, Danny pushed his way through the double doors at the end of the hall and emerged onto the casino floor. He was blinded by the bright lights and had to cover his ears to block out the painfully loud noise. Groping around, his hand landed on a pair of sunglasses that he quickly put on. The lights now controlled, Danny could see what was happening around him while still covering his ears with both hands._

_The casino was empty, yet the noise still came. As he walked through the rows of slot machines, Danny became aware of movement at the corner of his eye. Every time he turned his head, nothing was there. He stopped moving when he found himself in the center of the main entrance. Looking around, he took his hands from his ears and screamed. "Hello?"_

_Then the voices started. At first it was just confused whispering. Too many voices at once to be able to pick any out. Then slowly, he started hearing his friends. Mary, Mike, Delinda, Sam, Nessa, all calling out to him. "Danny! Danny!"_

_He spun around quickly, the sunglasses flying off of his face and slamming into a pillar behind him. They hit with a great explosion, knocking him forward onto his knees. _

_When the ringing in his ears cleared, Danny looked up and found himself in a blown out village in Iraq. He stood up and looked around. Realizing his hands were heavy, he looked down to find his rifle cradled there. As he moved forward, he found he wasn't alone this time. Hundreds of other marines moved with him. When he tried to see who they were, all he could see were blank spaces where their faces should have been._

_Ahead of them, the village exploded. With fire everywhere, the group dropped to the ground and began retreating. Danny found himself still on his feet, still moving forward. From behind him, he heard voices again. "Lt. McCoy! We're being overrun. What do we do? Lt. McCoy?" When he turned, there was no one there. He stared into the vast, empty desert and screamed._

Sitting up straight in his new bed, Danny immediately stopped screaming. Breathing hard, he looked around and got his bearings. He was in his dad's apartment and judging from the blackness out the window, it was still the middle of the night.

Once his breathing returned to normal, Danny lay back down and closed his eyes. Still trembling slightly, he listened to the near absolute quiet surrounding him and waited for sleep to come again.

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Danny leaned on his crutches and stared down the empty hallway ahead of him. Cautiously he put his left foot out in front of him and let some of his weight rest on it. Satisfied that there wasn't an excruciating amount of pain and that his leg could support him, he shifted back to the crutches, took a step on his right foot and started the process over again.

"Danny! Why is your brace in here and you're not?" Larry poked his head out a doorway and frowned. "You're in such a hurry that you're going to end up hurting yourself and making it worse."

Frowning, but submitting, Danny lifted his left leg behind him and made his way into the living room. He let himself drop onto the couch and put up his still healing leg on the table in front of him. Larry joined him and set the brace in his son's lap.

"I heard Shawn say that you might be wearing that brace permanently, most of the time anyway."

"I know." Danny picked up the brace and started putting it back on over his sock.

"He also said you'll definitely be walking without help. So don't push it and make the permanent damage worse." Larry stopped in his rushing around the house and watched Danny. "You going to be ready to go in five minutes?"

Danny yawned and nodded. "Yes. But I need to meat, eat. I need to eat."

Larry looked over at the kitchen, knowing that he hadn't gone shopping like he had planned. "How about some drive-thru on the way to the hospital? We'll go shopping tonight."

"That's what you said ye-yesterday." Having tightened the last buckle, Danny pulled himself back up with his crutches.

"I know, I know. We're both busy during the day and tired at night." Larry grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on. Picking up his keys, he turned and looked at Danny. His son stood there, balanced on one foot, not ready to go. Larry blew out a sigh. "Sorry. I know I'm out of control this morning." He put the keys back down and walked across the room to help Danny finish getting ready. Grabbing a Patriot's hat that had been acquired a few days earlier, Larry ruffled Danny's hair before putting it on him. "I'll go get your coat."

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Dr. Hammond leaned against a weight machine in the physical therapy room. A few feet away, Shawn was acting as a crutch for Danny as he took some halting steps with full weight on his braced foot.

"Your dad said that you were trying to walk without your brace on this morning." It was phrased like a question, but Danny knew it wasn't one.

Shawn's eyebrows shot up and he stared at Danny, waiting for a response.

"Gang-ganging up on me!" Danny frowned and twisted his body to reach a guardrail on the opposite wall. Once he had a good grip, he realigned himself and started making his way to where his crutches rested.

Shawn sighed and rubbed his hands over his face before mumbling, "Pain in my ass." He opened his eyes and watched his patient cross the room quickly on his crutches. "Danny. I've told you that you have to do as I say or…"

"I know!" Danny interrupted. "Already g-got the lecture." He slumped onto a chair and waited to be dismissed.

Shawn shook his head and turned his back on his patient. "Has he been grumpier than normal?"

Larry thought back over the past couple of days. "Yeah, actually. I didn't put it together until you said that, but he's been pretty moody."

"S-sitting right here!" Danny shoved one of his crutches, sending it sliding across the floor.

Dr. Hammond turned and focused on him. He met her eyes and frowned before dropping his gaze to the floor. "I think Lt. McCoy and I are going to go have a chat."

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"Okay, so what's up Mr. McCoy?" Dr. Hammond closed the door behind her and turned around to find Danny sleeping on her couch. Sighing, she crossed the room and sat down in her desk chair.

After a few minutes of watching his fitful sleep, she closed the file in front of her and leaned forward. "Danny."

He blinked and sat up, looking slightly disoriented. When the fog cleared, his eyes focused on the doctor's and she smiled.

"Welcome back. Did you have a nice nap?"

Danny shifted uncomfortably, now avoiding her eyes.

The doctor stood up and moved around her desk. She sat down in the chair nearest where Danny was slumped and waited until he looked at her again. "How long have you been having nightmares?"

He didn't respond right away. "I-I'm not..."

"Danny."

"A cou-couple weeks."

Dr. Hammond did some quick math in her head and smiled softly. "Since you left to be at home with your father."

Danny nodded, his eyes back on the floor.

She chuckled and leaned back in her seat. "Is it very quiet at home?"

"Too quiet."

"That's what I guessed. Danny, you woke up in a hospital and then moved here, there's been noise all hours of the day in your world for months. You're getting to deep REM sleep for the first time since all of this happened to you." Dr. Hammond waited until she met his eyes again. "I think you're starting to remember."

"I do-don't remember! No-nothing!" Danny shook his head, getting agitated.

"Do you remember your dreams?"

He shook his head.

"Okay." She stood up and handed him his crutches. "We'll talk about this more next time we meet."

Danny pulled himself back to standing and paused. "I do-don't want to remember."

Dr. Hammond rested her hand gently on Danny's shoulder. "Tough."

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Kate leaned against the outside of the building and watched Larry dragging a pair of chairs out onto the balcony.

He paused with the second one halfway out the door. "You're not cold, are you?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No. It really is unusually warm for this time of year."

Larry nodded and finished moving the furniture. Kate took one of the chairs and positioned it facing into the sun. He grinned and moved his next to hers before sitting down.

After settling in, Kate reached for the teacup she had left sitting on the porch railing. "Where did you get all of the furniture anyway? You didn't buy this all."

"No." He shook his head. "The apartment came furnished. I have a full house of furniture back in Las Vegas."

Kate was quiet, staring down into her mug.

Understanding her silence, Larry decided to skirt the subject and changed to a safer topic. "It's nice being away from the rehab."

She smiled and looked up again. "It is. It's nice to see that the two of you aren't slobs when left alone."

Larry laughed. "Well, I'm not. I wouldn't say the same for my son."

"Where is he anyway?"

Staring out at the neighborhood around them, Larry pointed off ahead of them to their right. "Somewhere over there. He went for a walk."

"Probably more like a hobble." She grinned before starting to laugh.

"That's not nice." Larry smiled. "True, but not nice. You are one of his doctors."

"Yeah, but I'm not working right now."

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Danny moved slowly down the quiet street. He picked his way around melting piles of snow and puddles growing on the edge of the grass, making sure to keep his braced foot as dry as possible. Now that he was walking on his injured leg and using crutches, he had found his speed reduced.

Making his second pass down one particular street, he eyed a young woman up ahead. She had been out shoveling away slush from her driveway when he had gone by before. Now she was leaning against her shovel watching him approach.

She waited until he had just about passed her before nodding her head in his direction. "What happened to you?"

Danny paused and looked back at her. "Huh?"

She smiled softly. "Sorry. I've just noticed you going by and wondered what happened to your leg."

"Oh, I bro-broke it."

"How?"

Danny frowned. "I do-don't row. I mean, know."

A look over confusion passed over the woman's face. "Were you at the VA across town?"

He nodded. "How'd you know?"

"You have that military look about you; that and the USMC logo on your sweatshirt." She smiled.

"Oh!" Danny looked down, remembering what he was wearing. "I didn't…"

"It's okay." She took a step in his direction and offered her hand. "I'm Michelle."

Leaning on his crutches to free his hands, Danny extended his right in her direction. "I'm Danny."


	23. Chapter 21

-Chapter 21-

Larry unlocked the front door, walked in and kicked it shut behind him. Leaning back, he glanced at the clock on the stove in the kitchen and rubbed his hands over his face. Noting the quiet in the apartment, he pushed himself back upright and looked around.

"Danny?" There was no response. "I'm only an hour late." He wondered what kind of trouble his son might have found left on his own.

After a quick search of the apartment turned up nothing, Larry headed into the kitchen to use the phone. As he was about to dial the rehab to be sure that Danny had been dropped off, the door opened and a strange woman walked in.

"Who are you?" Larry hung up the phone.

The woman startled and looked back out the door before answering. "Um, I'm Michelle."

Over her shoulder, Larry could see Danny making his way up the stairs and sighed. He walked over and held the door so the two could come inside. "I'm Larry, Danny's dad."

She grinned. "I figured. It's nice to finally meet you."

Danny stopped in the doorway and watched his father. "Dad, I to-told you about her." He shook his head and continued inside.

"Yes, you did. I just didn't expect her to be walking into my house." Larry watched Danny limp into the living room. "Hey! You don't have your crutches anymore."

"No-nope!" Danny held up the cane he was now using. "Not until a-after sur-surgery."

"Which is when? Did Shawn give you a date?"

Danny finished making his way to the couch and sat down. Shaking his head, he started pulling off his jacket. "No-nope."

Larry filed away the question in the back of his mind, hoping to remember to ask Shawn himself. "Did you eat?" He looked over at Michelle, still standing awkwardly near the door. "Do you two want dinner?"

Danny looked over at Michelle and shrugged.

She smiled but then turned her attention to Larry. "Thanks for the invitation, but I need to go. I just wanted to make sure that Danny got home alright." She walked over and gave Danny a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later."

Once she was gone, Larry wandered into the living room and sat down on the end of the couch. He eyed Danny and smiled.

"What?" Danny shifted himself further down to give his father room.

Laughing, Larry wiped his hands on the towel he was holding. "Nothing." He stood up and turned back toward the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Pizza."

Twenty minutes later, Larry moved across the parking lot, heading for his car.

"Mr. McCoy?"

Larry stopped and turned quickly. "Michelle?" He took a few steps back toward where she was standing. "I thought you left a while ago."

The young woman played with a ring on her finger for a few seconds and then put both hands in her pockets. "I did actually. I've been walking around the block." She grinned.

"I'm just running out to pick up dinner." He aimed a thumb at his truck over his shoulder.

Michelle nodded and spoke quickly. "Do you know that Danny can't read or write?"

Larry blinked at the sudden shift in conversation. His mouth gaped open as he tried to organize his thoughts. "I ah, I… yes. Yeah, I knew that it was a possibility with his injuries." He met the girl's eyes. "Did he tell you what happened to him?"

She shook her head. "Not really. But I figured that he was hurt in the war."

"What made you think that?" Larry crossed his arms in front of him, keys still dangling from his hand.

"Mr. McCoy, I've lived in this neighborhood for a few years now. You aren't the first family to move in and then have an injured 20-something arrive months later. I live near a military hospital and our country is at war." Michelle stopped as her air ran out. Blushing slightly, she dropped her eyes. "I sort of put two and two together."

Larry found a smile crossing his face. "Do you befriend them all?"

The tone of his voice made Michelle slide her eyes up and slowly smile. "No." She shook her head. "Yours is pretty good looking. And I'm a sucker for a boy with a mohawk."

Larry laughed. "I think that makes two of you that like that look." He shook his head, still grinning. "So, Michelle… why are you asking about Danny?"

Michelle was quiet for a moment. "Do you mind if I try to help him? I want to, I'm just unsure…" She sighed. "I don't want to do anything wrong or make it worse."

"I honestly think that he'll let you know if he's bothered by anything. I, on the other hand, would appreciate the help. I'm sure I could be doing more to help him with this stuff, but I'm so busy that we're only hitting the major things."

She smiled and took a couple of steps backward. "Great. That's great. I'll um, figure out what I can do and yeah…" Michelle stopped and smiled again. "I'll let you go and get dinner before it gets even later. Thanks Mr. McCoy."

Larry watched her disappear around the corner and smiled.

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Danny sighed and rested his head on the table in front of him. He was at Michelle's apartment again, working on kindergarten skills. He was constantly ending up frustrated at the things he couldn't do anymore that were once second nature.

Michelle leaned her elbows on her counter and looked across the room to where Danny sat. He had been copying letters of the alphabet that she had written, and while his writing looked like a child's, the letters were becoming more recognizable. "What's wrong?"

"I'm tired." His voice was muffled against the table.

Walking over, Michelle sat down next to him and rubbed his back. "Tired in general or tired of working?"

Danny picked up his head. "Both."

Michelle pulled his piece of paper closer and checked out his work. She ignored the backwards 'S' and 'R' and pointed to the 'D', which was formed correctly. "Which letter is this one?"

Danny dragged his eyes back from the window, where he had been staring. He looked at the paper and shrugged.

"Come on, we were talking about it before."

Sighing deeply, Danny looked at the paper again and shook his head.

Michelle leaned back in her chair and watched him. "It's a 'D'. What sound does it make?"

He looked over at her and thought for a minute. "'D'…duh?"

She smiled. "Yeah! That's right." She grabbed the pencil he had been using and quickly printed his name. Showing him the paper, she met his eyes. "What does that say?"

Danny looked down and studied it. "'D'."

After he had stared at it silently for a minute, Michelle helped him. Pointing to the next letter, she prompted him. "'A'… just like it sounds."

"Da…." Danny made a face. "'N'. En." Smiling, he looked up at her. "Danny."

Laughing, Michelle nodded. "I'm going to assume that you guessed at the end of that. But you did figure out most of it. It's a good start."

Michelle watched his smile falter and she reached out and rested her hand on his arm. "It will keep getting easier."

Danny nodded and pushed his chair back. Standing up he made his way into the kitchen, walking without his cane, but with a pronounced limp.

"I thought you were supposed to be using your cane." Michelle pointed to the object in question, leaning against the wall.

Grinning as he turned on the tap at the sink, Danny filled a glass of water for himself. "Shhh!"

Michelle shook her head and walked over to join him. "How long until you're trapped on crutches again?"

"Another we-week."

Pulling herself up to sit on the counter, she studied him for a minute. He was nervous under the scrutiny and kept his eyes aimed out the window or down at the floor.

"Are you scared?"

Danny shrugged.

"Look at me." Michelle continued to stare at him until he finally met her gaze. "Well?"

"Y-yeah, I am."

"Why?"

Danny thought before responding. "I c-can't really remember being in the hospital. Just pieces." He leaned his hip against the counter and put his glass down. "Scary because it's in pieces. I don't want that to happen ag-again."

Michelle reached out her hand, grabbing his fingertips. He responded, taking a step closer. Now that he was in reach, she pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him. "It's not going to be like that. This is just a routine thing, nothing like what happened before. And, your dad will be there."

Danny let himself relax into her hug. "Will you be there?"

"If you want me to be."


	24. Chapter 22

-Chapter 22-

Larry made his way slowly down the hospital hallway. He had to keep actively reminding himself that he was in Rhode Island. He was in the US and this wasn't some overseas hospital where he had no idea if his son would live or die.

It was hard though. His mind kept flashing back to the day when he first saw Danny hooked up to all of the machines keeping him alive. It was still enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Blinking, he stopped outside of room 506 and looked at the name plate on the wall next to it. 'Lt. McCoy, Daniel'

He hadn't realized how long he had been standing and staring until the sound of Danny's laughter came through the door in front of him, bringing him back to reality. Followed seconds later by Kate's hand resting on his shoulder.

"Hey. Everything okay?"

Larry turned to face her, a smile appearing on his face. "Yeah, I just… well." He sighed. "I wish I wasn't having such a hard time with this."

"It will be okay. This really is just a routine thing." Kate looked over his shoulder at the name next to the door. "He's still not discharged?"

"We haven't heard anything from the Marines at all. I don't know if I should be doing something. But they are still covering all of the medical costs, so I sort of don't want to."

"Understandable." Kate smiled as Danny's laughter was heard again. "He sounds like he's in good spirits."

Larry nodded. "He has been lately. I think he likes Michelle.

"She's good for him. It can only be helpful to have someone who has no pre-judgments about him."

He smiled again. "And she takes some of the pressure off of me. She's the one who helped him learn to read again."

"How's that going?"

"It's like it just clicked the other day. He's still slow and sometimes needs some help, but he's got it."

Kate nodded, the doctor side taking over. "As long as the basics are there, he'll just keep getting stronger. The reading will become more confident and his writing will get clearer with practice." She paused. "He's really got at least the basics in everything. He'll need more PT after the surgery, but that's normal for this kind of surgery. I would recommend ongoing speech therapy, just to keep him working. But I would almost declare him fully recovered."

Noticing her smile fade, Larry looked the question at her. "What?"

"You guys should be able to go home soon."

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Danny leaned forward and adjusted the pillows behind his back. Settling again, he dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"What are you thinking about?" Michelle was leaning on her elbows, balanced on the edge of his bed.

"How much I don't like hospitals."

She looked up curiously. "Always or just since all of this?"

"Always. But this certainly hasn't helped."

Michelle laughed and Danny quickly joined in. "I just want this over with."

"You still scared?"

"Yeah." Danny nodded. "What if something goes wrong?"

Michelle thought for a minute. "Well, you've been through worse and come back."

He smiled. "That's true." Danny looked down at the magazine in his hands, flipping idly through the pages.

"Had enough reading?" Michelle pulled the magazine from him as he nodded.

Danny inspected the IV in his arm for lack of anything else to do. "I think that whatever they gave me is kicking in."

"Yeah, the stutter you get when you're nervous is gone." Michelle smiled.

Beginning to feel tired, Danny blinked slowly as he smiled at her. "You're starting to know me too well."

She sat up and ran her fingers back through his hair. "Everything is going to be okay."

"Where's my dad?"

"I'll go find him." Michelle stood up and headed for the door just as Larry opened it from the other side. "Wow, good timing. Were you listening in?" She said, grinning.

Larry just stared at her, confused.

"Never mind. Danny's getting tired and wanted to talk to you." She turned around and waved at Danny. "See you after."

Danny lifted his hand and waved, dropping it heavily back onto his chest.

Once Michelle was gone, Larry crossed the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. "How's it going?"

"I don't want to do this."

"Why not?"

Danny shrugged, hesitating. "What if something goes wrong and…"

Larry smiled reassuringly and picked up his son's hand. "No what ifs. Everything is going to be fine."

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Several hours later in the waiting room, Larry groaned as he put down the magazine he had been flipping through. "I've already read this one. Twice."

Kate smiled gently before discreetly checking her watch. By her calculations, Danny should be in recovery, but no one had appeared to give them an update. She suspected they were having delays getting him up from the anesthesia and were waiting until he was awake to talk to Larry.

Another fifteen minutes passed before the surgeon appeared. "Mr. McCoy?"

Larry stood and crossed the room. "How is he?"

"Everything went well. He took a little longer than normal waking up, but he's been awake and alert. He's back in his room."

"Can I go sit with him?"

"Of course. Only one person at a time though. He needs to rest." The doctor met Kate's eye and nodded very quickly before walking away.

Larry immediately started for the elevators, wanting to see Danny for himself.

"Wait! Larry…" Kate caught up with him and took his hand. "I think he's probably going to sound really off again."

"What do you mean?"

"He's groggy from the anesthesia and it's going to affect his speech. Not permanently, but enough so that I think you'll worry." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Just try to get him to talk with you. The more he comes out of it, the quicker he'll recover. Does that make sense?"

Larry nodded. "Thanks for the heads up." He forced a smile and continued toward Danny's room.

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Stopped outside of room 506 again, Larry took a deep breath before pushing the door open. Crossing to the bed, he saw Danny covered in wires and tubes, machines breathing for him, blinking and beeping, keeping him alive. Larry stared for a minute, frozen with fear, before blinking his eyes hard.

Danny was just sleeping, his head turned to the left. The only wires and tubes were his IV and the monitor on his finger measuring his pulse rate. His left foot and leg were covered in bandages.

Larry shook his head and let out a sigh as he crossed and sat in the chair next to the bed. He watched Danny sleep for a minute before reaching out and picking up his hand. He felt Danny flinch and curl his fingers as he started waking up. Looking up at his son's face, Larry smiled meeting his eyes, groggy but open.

"Hi."

Danny just swallowed and shifted himself onto his right side.

"Everything is okay. The doctor said it went perfectly."

Nodding, Danny blinked and turned his head, staring up at the ceiling. "S-sleep." His voice was hoarse and slow.

Larry pulled himself closer to the bed and brushed his hand through his son's hair. "Don't get upset about your speech. Kate said its fine, common even. She said you just have to talk more and it will all come back."

Danny nodded. "N-not now."

"Okay. I get to keep you as a captive audience then."

This got a smile from Danny. "W-what?"

Larry spent a minute just watching Danny's face, searching his eyes. "Just something we should start thinking about… are you happy here?"

Danny looked confused. "Ye-yeah." He coughed, trying to clear the raspy sound. "I g-guess."

Taking a breath, Larry just went for it. "Kate says once you're rehabbed from this surgery, you'll be good to go. Time to go home." He watched Danny's face and found the doubt he thought he would find there. "Do you want to go home?"

"D-do you?"

"I don't know. We've been here for a while now. I feel sort of settled with work, our apartment… Kate." Larry smiled sheepishly at the big grin that got from Danny. "Do you miss Las Vegas?"

Danny nodded. "B-but all dif-different now. S-safe here."

"I know. It's up to you. If you want to stay here, where no one will be looking for how different you are, we can." Larry smoothed back Danny's hair again and smiled. "We don't have to decide right now. I just wanted to see where you were with it."

"Okay." Danny yawned and turned his head to the side again, closing his eyes.

Larry smiled and leaned down to kiss Danny's forehead. "We'll talk about it later. Sleep, so I can get you out of here again."

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The discussion about what to do once Danny's rehabilitation was completed had been tabled while he recovered from his surgery. Once he was released from the hospital, he was focused on regaining his speech again and walking. Everything was coming back quickly and that left both men weighing their options. Every car ride between the VA and their apartment, they were both scanning their surroundings deciding if this could become home; if they wanted it to become home.

After his release from the hospital, Danny's nightmares came back full-force. Larry assumed it related to his son's fear of hospitals and Danny wasn't ready to tell him it wasn't.

Danny was lying on the couch in the apartment with his foot up on a pillow. His cane was on the floor next to him and he had been given a permanent brace for his leg. He would wear it all the time now, but in the future it would be used when he felt he needed it. He closed his eyes and let the book he was reading drop slowly to his chest.

"Lazy! Wake up." Michelle laughed as she rounded the corner from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn for them to share.

"Sorry. I… I'm not sleeping well." Danny pulled himself more upright to aid in his staying awake.

"No kidding. The bags under your eyes are huge." She sat down carefully next to his raised foot. "What's up?"

Danny shook his head. "Nothing." He met her eyes as she offered the bowl to him. "Really." He smiled and took some popcorn. "What are we watching?"

Before Michelle could answer, Larry arrived home. He closed the door behind him and eyed the pair on the couch. "Working hard?"

"We're going to watch a movie. Do you want to join us?" Michelle started to move over giving Larry room.

He smiled and shook his head. "No, thanks. I have some work to do." Larry crossed the room holding out an envelope. "Danny this came in the mail for you."

Danny took the envelope and looked at the seal in the upper left hand corner. "It's from the Corps."

"I know." Larry nodded and sat down on the coffee table waiting for him to open it.

Ripping the envelope open, Danny pulled out the letter. He read silently for a minute, scanning down the page, before thrusting it at Larry and pulling himself to his feet. "I don't want that!"

"Danny?" Larry reached for the pieces of paper that had drifted to the floor and read out loud. "Lieutenant Daniel R. McCoy serial…" His voice drifted off as he began to read to himself.

"Mr. McCoy?" Michelle sat still on the couch, worried about what was happening.

They heard Danny slam the door to his bedroom and Larry sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "He's been awarded the Purple Heart for being wounded in battle and the Silver Star…" He looked down and read from the page. "…exhibited exceptional bravery when ambushed and overrun by overwhelming numbers…" Letting his voice trail off again, he shifted to the second sheet of paper and scanned it. "And he's been officially discharged." Relief flooded over Larry for a second before he forced himself to return to what was currently happening.

"That's all great news. What's he so upset about?"

"I have no idea." Larry stood up and looked down the hallway. "You should probably go. I'll see if I can get him to talk to me."

Michelle stood up and walked down the hallway. She knocked lightly on Danny's door. "I'm going to go, can I say goodbye?"

"Get out!" Danny threw something that landed with a thud against the back of the closed door.

Frowning, Michelle headed for the door. "Tell him I said I'll see him later. I hope everything is okay."

"Me too." Larry watched her leave and then turned back toward his son's door. He looked down at the paperwork in his hands and re-read it. "Danny, we've got to talk."

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Ed Deline hung up his phone and leaned back in his chair. Rubbing his hands roughly over his face, he sighed heavily. The months he had spent following up dead-end lead after dead-end lead had finally paid off. He had managed to contact Danny's superior officers that had served in Iraq with him.

From talking to many different people he had finally managed to piece together most of what had happened that had landed Danny in the hospital, nearly ending his life. He felt sick to his stomach and his heart ached for his protégé.

Pulling himself together, Ed picked up the phone and dialed Larry McCoy's cell phone. When Larry answered, Ed could hear nothing in the background noise to indicate his location, so he just began. "I found out what happened to him."

"Me too."


	25. Chapter 23

-Chapter 23-

Danny crossed the threshold and immediately shielded his eyes from the impossibly bright sun. Fumbling in a pocket on his vest, he pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Slipping them on, he sighed, happy with the small amount of relief they brought.

Taking a few more steps out onto the street, his eyes scanned the group of marines scattered around the area. Most were still on their feet, clumped in groups of three or four, but some had sat down sprawling their feet out in front of them.

Shifting his rifle under his arm, Danny lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply as he stowed the lighter back in the pocket on his left thigh. He crossed the street, gravel crunching under his boots, and stopped off to the side of the area his men were relaxing in.

They were on the very edge of a small town and Danny was staring out at the endless desert in front of them. Sensing motion behind him, he tensed his muscles, but didn't move.

"Sergeant O'Hare."

The man approached to Danny's right and stood half a step behind him. "Lieutenant McCoy."

Only after he was addressed did Danny turn his head to face the other man. "How is everyone?"

The sergeant nodded and stepped forward, breaking the formality. "They're all okay. A couple of scrapes, but that's it."

"Good. Chris," Danny turned fully to face his companion. "That was a little too close for me."

The other marine, equally tall and striking, but blond and blue eyed, nodded his agreement. "I know Danny. And now we're just sitting here like…" he paused and smiled. "Sitting ducks."

Danny grinned and took one last drag on his cigarette before pitching it out in front of him. "Reinforcements will be here soon." He turned around so he could look at the rest of their unit. "We're safe here for now though. There's no one left in this town."

"I know. Still makes me nervous."

"We'd be more exposed if we started walking. The trucks are toast." Danny kicked some dirt toward the smoldering butt and sighed.

The two marines looked at each other for a moment before crossing back to join the others.

Within twenty minutes, the rumble of Humvees could be heard in the distance. Danny stood up and brushed the dust from his pants. Picking up his rifle, he walked back to his earlier position overlooking the desert.

When Sergeant O'Hare arrived at his side, Danny nodded in the direction of the clouds of dust in the distance. "2nd Battalion, coming to the rescue."

Danny gathered his troops and by the time the convoy arrived in the town, they were lined up and waiting. As the line of armored trucks stopped, a man appeared out the window of one and smiled at Danny. He shook his head and waggled a gloved finger out the window.

"Aww, should have known it was you McCoy. What'd you do? Go off trying to play the hero again?"

Danny rolled his eyes and returned the man's grin. "Yeah, that's it exactly." He stepped forward and they shook hands. "Thanks for coming Captain."

"I always rescue lowly little Lieutenants lost in the desert." He laughed at his own joke and opened the door, getting out and stretching.

Knowing that his friend had only recently been promoted from lieutenant himself, Danny shook his head as he stepped back to give the man room.

As the rest of the newly arrived battalion exited their vehicles, the captain looked at the lines of Danny's unit. "Hi boys." He sneered at them. "I'm Captain Bradford." He crossed back toward Danny. "We've got presents for you guys."

Nodding toward one of the men who lingered near the back of the Humvee, Bradford took the bag that was brought to him. He pulled an envelope from the top before tossing the bag back to the other marines. "Mail." Handing Danny the envelope, he stepped back and checked out the setting sun. "We'll head out of here at sun up."

Once the mail was distributed and the watch schedule assigned, everyone settled in to try and get some sleep. Danny sat down on a chair in the abandoned house some of his men were bunking in. He opened the envelope that Bradford had given him. Upending it, the contents slid out onto the table: a new set of dog tags and a bunch of paperwork probably charging him for requesting the replacements.

As he propped his left foot up in front of him and began stringing one of the new tags into the laces, he noticed that one of the young marines was watching him.

"Hey L.T.?"

Danny raised his eyebrows at the use of the old nickname for his rank. "What do you want Foley?"

The private scooted over and leaned against the leg of the table. "How come we gotta put a dog tag in our shoe?"

After staring the man down for a minute, Danny opened his mouth, but quickly closed it. Trying to think of the most tactful way to explain, in light of their situation, was difficult. Deciding to scrap tact, he pointed to his neck, where the second of his new tags now hung, and then to his foot. "There's a lot of bodily real estate between these two points. Your head gets blown off; we can still put a name with your feet."

Private Foley swallowed hard and moved quickly back to his bunk.

Danny watched the small group of his men for a few minutes before gathering his things and heading back outside. He spent the rest of the night doubling up on the watch and catching a few minutes sleep every couple of hours.

As the sun began to clear the horizon the next morning, the two units of marines were already loaded onto the convoy of humvees and ready to roll out. Hopping into a truck fourth back in the line, Danny and his friend Captain George Bradford gave the signal to get moving.

Danny's eyes scanned the map he held in between the two of them. George pointed to a point on it and looked out the windshield. "Orders are to continue on to here."

As Danny folded up the map, he gave his friend a sideways glance. "What's the deal?"

"It's suddenly very quiet there. We need to check out why."

"Great." Danny settled himself as much as he could in the uncomfortable vehicle.

Several hours later, the convoy still sped along under the bright sun. They hadn't seen much of anything and it was making them nervous; only a few smoking, blown out cars and some fires off in the distance.

Slowing as they approached their target, Danny consulted with his companion. Deciding that the best approach was to keep moving as they assessed what was going on in the town, they sent the orders back to their men and watched as they appeared hanging out of windows and several jumped out to walk along next to the trucks.

They were watched as they entered the town. Every so often there would be an Iraqi man standing in a doorway or sitting in a chair near a store. It made Danny nervous that it seemed to be only men; no kids running around, no women watching.

Just as he was about to voice his opinion to George, the silence was split by a violent explosion as they watched the first truck in their convoy simultaneously jump into the air and erupt in flames. The driver of the truck carrying Danny and the Captain hit the breaks, stopping inches short of the one in front of them.

Realizing that their path was effectively blocked and the men in that truck were lost, the marines jumped into action. They abandoned their trucks and headed for cover. Splitting into their original units, they dodged sudden gunfire from the insurgents surrounding them. Captain Bradford's unit headed in one direction and Danny's in the opposite.

This was the part that Danny hated. He wished he could close his eyes and have it all be over. Instead, he had to keep his eyes open and keep himself alert as he ran, firing his rifle at people who had no problem firing theirs at him.

Turning a corner, he pushed his back against a wall and signaled for his men to follow him. He watched as they all crouched down and made their way through the small courtyard to the other side. Providing cover, he calmly raised his rifle and shot a man before he had a chance to shoot at them.

The unit kicked open doors and cleared several mostly empty houses before settling in one that had a decent view of the surrounding areas. Danny readjusted his helmet on his head and wiped the sweat from his eyes as he pulled out his map, trying to figure out exactly where they had ended up.

He pulled the walkie-talkie from his belt and keyed it on. "Stray Goose this is Wild Card, over." Releasing the button, he waited.

Seconds later static filled the air and George's voice followed briefly, but it was garbled and Danny couldn't understand what he said. "Stray Goose?"

The static returned, filled with gunfire, but disappeared quickly. "Bradford?!"

When there was no response Danny dropped his eyes and sighed. Returning the walkie to his belt, he looked up and found his men looking to him. He took a second to steel himself again and spread his map on the ground in front of them all.

"We have to assume they've been overrun." Danny looked quickly at the faces around him. "We need to get out of here. O'Hare, you take Yates, Foley, and Alexander and see if you can find 2nd Battalion." He pointed down to the map. "They headed this way. Last I heard them talking, they were here."

The four marines stood up and gathered their few things. Danny looked up at his friend. "Sergeant, keep me updated."

Chris looked down and nodded and the group headed out.

Once they were gone, Danny gathered up his map and stood. "Let's head for the trucks."

The unit was met with steady gunfire as soon as they hit the main road. They were forced to duck in and out of alleys and eventually found themselves cornered between several buildings.

The enemy fire was still strong and every so often one of Danny's men would cry out as he was hit. He watched the injured men being taken care of and he watched the others continuing to fight. Staring at the map he held in his hands, Danny tried to find a way out of there; something he might have missed before.

Another scream of pain and the sound of a bullet flying past his ear and imbedding itself in the wall behind him brought Danny back.

"Lieutenant, what do we do?" "They're everywhere, we're being overrun!" "Lieutenant McCoy?"

Seeing no other option, Danny took a deep breath and looked around trying to locate one person in particular. "Ferretti, get over here!"

As the young marine made his way closer, Danny let his anger at the situation out on the man. "You're supposed to be at my side at all times, damnit! Dumb fuck." He spun the man around to get access to the satellite phone he carried on his back.

Picking up the receiver, Danny silently cursed his own failure at not being able to help his unit himself. He hated having to ask for help, even in a situation like this. "Base, this is Wild Card, over."

"Wild Card, we read you, over."

"We need air support at 33° 19' 12N, 44° 20' 38E. Do you copy?"

"Copy you Wild Card, on its way, over."

Danny slammed the receiver down and shoved the man carrying it away from him. "Stay by me!"

He looked around at the quickly deteriorating situation and addressed what was left of his unit. "We can't stand here and wait to be killed. Let's get moving. Grab your shit, help the guys who can't walk, and let's go! No one is left behind."

Checking his own rifle, Danny made sure it was locked and loaded as he started moving. They made it around 30 yards before he gave the signal to halt.

Private Foley was laying face down on the side of the road. Danny crouched down and watched. He scanned the surrounding area and then let his eyes rest on Foley. Seeing the young marine's hand twitch, Danny jumped up and ran forward.

As he ran into the road, his helmet falling off behind him, Danny didn't hear the screams of Sergeant O'Hare and the men with him. Five feet away from reaching his goal, the body in front of him exploded violently, blowing Danny backward.

He was slammed back against the cement wall of a nearby house, his head hitting hard and instantly knocking him unconscious. As the dust settled, O'Hare and Yates pulled themselves back to their feet and ran for their Lieutenant. They were joined by the remaining men who had been with Danny.

"What the hell happened?"

"The body was wired. We knew he was dead when we left him on the other side of town." O'Hare swore and dropped to his knees to examine McCoy.

Danny's head was bleeding and Chris could tell the injury was serious. He looked back at the men standing nearby and the others who were providing them cover. "Adams, get over here!"

Another young marine emerged from the group and ran over.

"Stay with Lieutenant McCoy." O'Hare stood up. "Five of you stay here and keep them safe. The rest of you, we're going to get Bradford and his guys. They're headed back to the trucks, but we need them here."

"We thought they were overrun like us."

O'Hare shook his head. "You guys ended up in the hot zone. 2nd Battalion just lost their communications. They've been trying to find you ever since."

As soon as the patched together unit appeared in the open, they encountered heavy fire again. O'Hare led them away from where their injured leader lay and toward the other unit's last known position.

Minutes after they cleared the courtyard, a rocket propelled grenade sailed overhead and exploded into the building providing cover for the men they had just left behind. O'Hare turned and watched the ball of fire rise into the air where the building had just been. He shook his head and forced himself to believe that no one had been killed.

"Sergeant!" One of the men approached him and pointed into the distance. "It's the air support Lieutenant McCoy called for."

Sure enough the distant hum of helicopters grew steadily louder and was joined by the sound of machine gun fire coming from them. As the enemy fire was slowly silenced, O'Hare's group met up with Bradford and his men. The two joined forces and returned to where Danny had been left behind.

What they found when they got there made both of the officers' hearts sink. The explosion had destroyed the building apparently killing Adams and several of the others left behind. The two remaining marines signaled them over and they ran to join them.

"McCoy's still alive! We need to get him out of here." One of them yelled as he pulled at a piece of the crumbled wall.

Captain Bradford found Ferretti, the marine with the satellite phone and radioed for pickup, including a medivac for the injured.

Once the air support had gone by, the town was strangely quiet except for the sound of the men digging through the rubble of the building. Danny was partially trapped under the large concrete pieces, his left leg crushed.

Ever efficient, the marines left standing after the attack had Danny and the rest of the injured recovered and ready to go as soon as the medivac landed.

Danny would be rushed to a medical base and stabilized before being sent out of Iraq for the last time.


	26. Chapter 24

-Chapter 24-

Danny squinted and pulled his sunglasses over his eyes as he looked at the impossibly blue sky overhead. He laid back with his legs dangling over the edge of his dad's work pickup truck. Looking down the length of his torso, he could see Michelle standing a few feet away and gave her a come here gesture.

"It's gross back there." She shook her head.

"It won't kill you, I promise." Danny propped himself on his elbows to see her better.

She took a couple of steps closer. "You have sawdust in your hair."

Grinning, he held out a hand. "Come get it out."

Sighing, Michelle relented and crawled up on the back of the truck. Settling to his left, she reached over and brushed the dirt from his hair. "You should dye the mohawk blue or something."

"Over my dead body!" Larry stamped his work boots on the ground, pounding loose dirt from them.

"You know, I'm not actually 17." Danny smirked at his father.

"Wouldn't know it from how you act." Larry returned the smirk and turned to go inside.

Scowling at his father's back, Danny slid off the bed of the pickup and gingerly put weight on his left foot. He turned and grabbed his cane, which had been laying next to him.

"Do you have your brace on?" Larry called without turning around. He was standing in front of the door, fishing for his keys in his pocket.

"My poor dad," Danny grinned and started walking across the parking lot. "Someday he'll learn to let go a little."

When Danny looked up at the entrance to the front door of the apartment building, his eyes met Larry's and the two stood there a minute. When Larry finally broke the gaze to open the door, he shook his head.

"Not as much as I once did."

The door banged closed behind him and Danny just stared at it.

"What was that about?" Michelle rested a hand on Danny's shoulder, startling him slightly.

He shook his head dismissively. "Nothing."

"You sure?"

"W-we just weren't close before and I don't think he wants to let go again." Danny turned and went back into the sun. "We lived in the same city and rarely saw each other."

"And you were almost killed Danny. I don't think it's a bad thing for him to want his son around."

"Me either." Danny smiled and looked back at Michelle. "It's just surprising still. Everything is different here."

Larry leaned on the window sill staring out at Danny and Michelle. The two had returned to the bed of his truck and were enjoying the sun and talking. He cradled the phone against his ear and waited for Kate to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey." Larry found himself smiling at her voice. "Are you coming over tonight?"

"Do you want me to or are you boys celebrating?"

"Celebrating what? What did I miss?"

Kate laughed. "Danny completed his intensive rehabilitation today; got his walking papers, so to speak. He didn't tell you?"

"No, of course not. I'm always the last to know. It's great, but I still want you to come over."

She was quiet for a minute before continuing carefully. "You know this means you guys can go home, right? Danny can get the ongoing therapies he'll need anywhere."

Larry paused. "Yeah, I know. It's something Danny and I have been talking about recently." He grinned slowly. "But I still want you to come over."

Feeling some relief, Kate found herself laughing. "Alright, I'll be there in an hour."

* * *

The next afternoon Larry walked through the door to find his son lounging on the couch with his feet draped over the arm. He flipped through the pile of mail in his hands and tossed a padded envelope addressed to Danny toward him.

It landed with a thump on Danny's stomach, making him sit up and glare in his father's direction. "Hey!"

Larry was engrossed in a letter he had received and didn't react until he heard the envelope thud against the wall next to him. He looked up as Danny was pulling himself to his feet and grabbing his cane. "Said I didn't want those."

"Danny?" Larry turned in time to see the front door close.

Sighing, he reached down and picked up the envelope, this time giving it his full attention. He quickly realized what had happened when he saw that the return address was the seal of the Marine Corps.

He pushed his fingers along the envelope and could feel two separate masses inside. Deciding it couldn't do any more harm; Larry opened the envelope and dumped out the two black velvet cases. He opened each one, revealing the Purple Heart and Silver Star that Danny had been awarded.

Larry was unsure how long he had sat there staring at the medals when the doorbell rang, jarring him out of his trance. He put the two cases on the coffee table and went to open the door.

"Surprise!"

Larry found himself engulfed in hugs as Jillian and Delinda Deline pushed though his door. Over their shoulders he could see Mary and Ed smiling in the doorway.

"Hi! Did I know you guys were coming? I didn't forget, did I?" The women stepped back and let Larry greet the rest of the group.

"No." Ed shook his hand and gave him a quick hug. "We all needed a vacation from the desert and I heard that New England in the spring is very nice." He smiled. "It's okay?"

Larry smiled and nodded. "Of course it's okay. It might be a little crowded…"

"No, no. We booked a hotel. I wouldn't drop three women on you unannounced." Ed winced as Jillian swatted his arm.

"Come in." Larry gestured toward the living room and turned back in time to catch Mary's curious expression as her eyes scanned the room. "Danny isn't here."

The group moved into the living room and settled on the couch. Ed picked up one of the cases in front of him and stared at it.

"This the reason?" He looked up and caught Larry's eye.

"Yeah, actually. They just came and he wasn't very happy to see them. He took off about ten minutes ago." Larry sat down on the dining room chair he had just brought in so the available seating would accommodate them all. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"Took off?" Mary spoke quietly. "He's doing that well?"

Larry smiled. "Yeah, he is. He finished all of his intensive rehab the other day. He's still going to have to work, but the big stuff is behind him."

"That's great." Jillian and Delinda said at the same time. Mary just smiled.

Ed put the case down and looked at Larry's weary expression. Jillian glanced between the two of them and spoke up. "Why don't we three go out for a walk?" She fixed her gaze on the other two women. "I think the boys need some time to catch up."

Just as Delinda was about to object, Larry spoke. "Yeah, maybe you can find Danny and surprise him. You can't miss him… he's the only guy with a cane and a mohawk around here."

Mary raised her eyebrows. "A mohawk?"

"Yeah, it's actually not as bad as it sounds." Larry admitted.

* * *

Once the room had cleared out, leaving just Ed and Larry, silence settled in around them for a few minutes.

Unable to take it any longer, Ed snapped one of the medal cases shut and leaned back on the couch. "So how is he, really?"

Larry put down the glass of water he had been absently sipping from and smiled. "He really is doing well. His physical problems are under control. So is the speech thing. He stutters when he gets nervous or stressed now, but that's something he can still work on. He'll occasionally have times when he slips into the aphasia and can't think of the word he wants, but he's good about being corrected or helped."

Ed scrutinized Larry's face long enough that Larry picked up his water glass again just to have something to do. "And?"

Larry looked up. "And what?"

"I know there's more."

Larry nodded slowly. "I don't think he's doing as well mentally… emotionally. I mean, we're good. Better than I can really remember us being. But I can tell there's a lot he's keeping inside." He put the glass down again and stood up, pacing the length of the room. "He's still having nightmares. He doesn't say anything about them, but I've heard him when he's sleeping. I can't even imagine what he's going through."

Ed sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "He told you about what happened in Iraq though. Our stories completed each other."

"That's true." Larry came over and picked up the box with the Silver Star in it. "I think that helped. He seems less, I don't know, stressed, that someone else knows. But I don't think it was enough." He closed the box and put it on the table. "The problem is I don't think anything will really ever be enough."

"It sounds like he has PTSD."

Larry nodded. "Yeah, he does. We've known that. There's just not a lot that can be done about the mental end of things. We'll keep watching him. I'm going to insist, for now, that he keeps seeing a psychiatrist. Beyond that, I think he just needs time."

Ed nodded and replayed in his mind, for the thousandth time, the story of what had happened to Danny overseas. He was horrified and proud at the same time and felt bad that there wasn't anything he could really do to help. He sighed and decided to change the subject slightly. "How's he going to take having all of us show up?"

Larry walked over to the window and looked out. "I don't know." He turned and looked back at Ed. "It will be a good test to see. I know he feels secure in the fact that no one here knows what he was like before. So he may have some trouble with worrying that you guys are all comparing him to who he used to be."

"I wish I could assure him that we aren't. But we all miss him so much and want him back so much that it's hard to see him changed. Speaking of…" Ed stood up and joined Larry at the window. "Has Danny talked at all about the possibility of coming back to the Montecito eventually?"

Larry shook his head. "No. We've actually been talking about staying here."

* * *

"How are you doing Mary?" Delinda put her arm through her friend's and pulled her close.

The three women were walking down the street that Larry and Danny's apartment was on. Worried about getting lost, they had decided to just walk straight until they couldn't anymore.

"I'm alright, I guess." Mary smiled and briefly rested her head against Delinda's shoulder. "I wish I wasn't so nervous about seeing Danny."

"It's to be expected." Jillian piped up as she rejoined them, having stopped quickly to look around. "You are the most connected to Danny of all of us; other than his father."

Mary nodded. "I know, but it makes me sick to think I might not be able to look him in the eye. He's not the same person he was and I don't know him anymore."

Not knowing what to say, the other two women just stayed silent. They walked a few more blocks before Delinda squeezed Mary's arm and then pointed toward a playground up the street. It was unoccupied except for two adults sitting on the swings, talking animatedly. Mary couldn't help but smile as she recognized Danny.

Delinda hadn't seen Danny since the night before he had left for Iraq, almost a year earlier. She dropped Mary's arm and trotted up the small hill to where Danny and another woman sat.

Unable to hide a smile that surprised him, Danny pulled himself to his feet just in time to catch Delinda's arms around his neck.

"Oh my God, I missed you!" Delinda loosened her grip slightly so that she could see his face. She smiled and rumpled his hair. "I agree with your dad, it's not that bad."

Danny turned his head as Michelle laughed and shot her a look to say he hadn't expected to hear what had been said. She grinned and shrugged. Danny turned back as Delinda stepped away and Jillian moved in.

She kissed him softly on the cheek and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad to see you Danny. You look wonderful."

Over her shoulder, Danny could see Mary, standing back from the rest of them, but steadily staring at him. Once Jillian had moved away, Danny waved at her with his fingers and she finally came over and gave him a quick, but tight hug. Saying nothing, she stepped back.

Danny looked at the three of them, unsure of what to do next. Michelle, still seated on a swing, cleared her throat softly. He looked at her and then back at his friends. "O-oh, right. T-this… this is M-michelle."

Michelle looked worried at the sudden reappearance of Danny's pronounced stutter, but ignored it and greeted the group from Las Vegas. Once the three women had introduced themselves, the whole group fell into silence.

They were all aware that Danny and Michelle had been talking only minutes before and now Danny had barely managed five words. Realizing that everyone looked a little uncomfortable, Michelle took Danny by the hand and started to pull him back in the direction of his apartment. "Why don't we all go back?"

Jillian nodded. "I'm sure Ed is anxious to see you Danny."

Danny gaped. "E-ed's here too?"

* * *

Several days later, Danny was sitting at the counter with his head down on his arms in front of him. Larry was cleaning up from making breakfast. He had thrown a balled up piece of paper towel at Danny's head and gotten no reaction. Sighing, he crossed the kitchen and picked it up.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making it out to be."

"I can't do this." Danny's voice was muffled coming through his arms.

"Yes, you can and you are." Larry leaned against the counter. "No one is expecting anything of you Danny. You're nervous; we all understand that's why you're having some troubles. It's not a big deal."

Danny picked up his head and looked at his father. "I heard Mary the first day they got here asking Jillian why I couldn't talk to them. Delinda compared me to the doctor on that show, House."

Larry couldn't help but laugh and covered his mouth quickly.

"It isn't funny." Danny scowled and put his head down again.

"No, not at all." Larry laughed quietly. "She's wrong though. You won't need your cane forever. And you were talking to Michelle and not them, why?"

After thinking for a minute Danny looked up again and frowned. "I didn't know what to say to them."

Larry came around the end of the counter and sat down next to his son. "This is all stuff that you've talked about in therapy and worked on with Kate."

"That's all great, but actually dealing with it and seeing them… it's not the same!" Danny grabbed his cane and headed for the door. "I can't do this." He opened the door and turned to leave, but instead rammed into Ed, who was about to knock.

Ed looked around Danny at Larry, who just shrugged, frustrated. "Come on, back inside."

Danny struggled and tried to get past Ed. "Let me go!"

"Give it up son." Ed pushed Danny back inside, closed the door and leaned on it. "What's going on?"

Danny turned and headed for his room.

"You go in there and I'm going to tell Shawn that you aren't wearing your brace and he'll skin you." Larry stared down the hallway as Danny stopped and returned. He slumped onto the couch, frowning.

Ed watched as Larry crossed the room to pick up Danny's brace. "What's up?"

Danny caught the brace as Larry threw it at him. He put it on and leaned back, staring out the window.

Sighing, Larry looked over at Ed and shrugged. "He's just upset because he's having a hard time."

"Hard time with what?" Ed crossed the room and sat down.

"Danny?" Larry looked pointedly at him before returning to the kitchen and the dishes.

Danny could feel Ed staring at him and clenched his jaw, continuing to stare outside. After a few minutes of silence, he finally broke down. "It-it's all different."

Ed waited quietly knowing that Danny would elaborate.

Turning his head, Danny met Ed's eye hesitantly. "I ca-can't be who I was."

"I know that."

"But th-they don't."

"They?" Ed shook his head, unsure.

"Everyone!"

"Danny, everyone who?" Ed leaned forward, closing some of the distance between them.

"J-jillian, Delinda… M-mary. M-mike, Ness-nessa. Everyone in V-vegas." Danny dropped his eyes and sighed.

Nodding, Ed put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You're right."

Surprised, Danny looked up again.

"What?" Ed grinned. "You are. They saw you when you left and they see you now. It's a big difference and it's hard to take in. It doesn't mean that they can't or won't. You just need to give them time to adjust. Give them the benefit of the doubt, Danny. They all love you and, when it comes down to it, won't care how you are as long as you're there."

Silently, Danny nodded.

"I guess I'm different since I can see how much you've changed for the better since you woke up. What about Mary though?"

"S-she's afraid of me."

Ed almost laughed, but caught himself. "No she isn't. I think if you want to use the word afraid, she's afraid for you. But no, she's not afraid of you."

Larry moved from where he had been leaning against the counter listening. "I think she has the same problem you said before; she doesn't know what to say to you."

"Give them a chance Danny. I know you're nervous, but no one's going to not like you because you don't speak as fast as you used to." Ed squeezed Danny's shoulder before standing up and facing Larry. "So the girls drove up to Boston for the day to go shopping. I came over to see if you guys wanted to do something."

Larry nodded and looked over at Danny. "Yeah?"

Danny had been staring down at the floor working through the conversation that had just happened. He looked up and glanced between the two men. "Yeah."

* * *

On the last day before Mary and the Delines flew home, Larry suggested that they all go on a picnic. He invited Kate and Michelle along so that Danny wouldn't feel so overwhelmed.

Delinda pushed off with her legs and let the swing she was sitting on rock gently back and forth. "I wish we could stay longer."

Danny nodded and dug his toes into the dirt under his swing. He squinted into the setting sun and watched the rest of their group sitting at a picnic bench a few yards away.

"You're not going to get quiet on us again now, are you?" Delinda looked over at him.

"N-no." He turned toward her and grinned. "I was j-just watching."

Delinda nodded and pushed her swing so she bumped into his.

Larry looked up from his burger and watched Delinda and Danny laughing. He looked over at Ed and smiled. "Well, apparently you knew what to say to settle him down some. The stutter he gets when he's nervous is still hanging in, but at least he's talking. I appreciate it."

"Hopefully I won't live to regret it." Ed chuckled and finished the pickle he was holding.

Michelle stood up. "I'm telling him you said that." She laughed and walked over to join the two on the swings.

Kate and Jillian had gone for a walk, leaving Mary sitting at the second picnic bench alone. Larry stood up and went to join her as Ed followed Michelle so he could defend himself.

"Is everything okay?" Larry sat down and leaned back against the table.

Mary smiled and turned on the bench. "Yeah, I just don't feel like swinging."

"But you and Danny have talked, right?"

"Yes, we talked for a long time last night. He said that he's sorry about what happened back in the hospital. I really didn't think he would remember that."

Larry nodded. "He remembers most everything since we left the hospital overseas. And now even most of what put him there."

Mary stared at him wide-eyed. "Really?"

Nodding, Larry turned to watch the group on the swings. "Yeah, but he's dealing with it… we're dealing with it."

They sat quietly for a minute before Larry looked back at her. "Why are you really keeping your distance?"

Mary sighed loudly. "I don't know how to take Michelle." She frowned and looked at Larry. "Danny and I were… well, I thought we were…"

"I know." Larry put his hand over Mary's and squeezed. "I'm sorry."

Kate and Jillian appeared in the clearing and parted ways with Jillian headed for Ed and Kate for Larry.

Larry smiled and stood up to greet her. "Did you two have a nice walk?"

She nodded. "We did. I like her a lot."

Across the park, Jillian put her arms around Ed from behind and leaned on his shoulder. He stood up and took her hand. They walked over and started to clean up, bringing the leftover food to their rental car. Jillian watched as Ed loaded things into the trunk.

"I have a feeling that Larry and Danny aren't coming back to Las Vegas."

Ed stopped and looked up at her. "I know. I don't think so either. Larry said they're talking about it and they're really settled here. But I hope they change their minds."


	27. Chapter 25

I just wanted to quickly thank those of you who stuck with me and left all the wonderful reviews and sent me great PMs. It's because of you all that I decided to post the rest of this story here.

This is the last chapter. I hope you all have enjoyed it.

* * *

-Chapter 25-

Larry stood at the sliding glass doors and looked out at the pool in his backyard. The first thing he thought was that it needed to be cleaned; as did most everything in the house. He sighed and turned around, taking in the living room. There were boxes and suitcases everywhere. Wanting to delay dealing with all of it, he wandered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Empty, except for the few things he had bought at the store earlier. He picked up the iced coffee that he had been nursing for more than an hour and returned to looking out the doors.

Off in the distance, just glowing over the horizon, Larry could see the light from the Las Vegas strip. He felt something in the pit of his stomach, but was unsure if it was sadness or excitement, or just an overwhelming exhaustion from everything he had done lately and still had left to do.

Sighing again, Larry turned back to the mess in the living room. He put down his coffee and picked up a pile of books. He started flipping through each of them and sorting them into boxes.

Ed yawned as he pulled out of the employee parking lot of the Montecito. It was late, but despite his weariness, he was wired and decided to drive around some before heading home.

This was a common occurrence for him these days and he even had a normal route, which took him past the McCoy house. He felt like he needed to keep an eye on it for his friend. As he made his way down busy Las Vegas Boulevard and toward the surrounding neighborhoods, Ed let himself ponder the idea that he considered Larry McCoy his friend. When Danny had been hurt, Ed had reacted without thinking, but it had all been to help his friend, Danny. Over the months with Danny out of commission, Ed had had the chance to get to know Larry for the first time. He was unsure of where he stood with Danny these days, but it was nice to think of Larry as his friend.

With his mind wandering, the trip to the quiet neighborhood had passed quickly. Used to driving by an empty, dark house, Ed was surprised to see lights on and a black pickup truck in the driveway. He slowed down and pulled to the curb just down the street.

On the porch, Ed peeked through the window beside the door. He couldn't see anyone but noticed the mess of boxes and packing material. Confused, he rang the doorbell.

Larry smiled as he opened the door to find Ed standing there. "Hi!"

"Hi." Ed returned the smile. "I was just driving by, but didn't expect to see anyone."

"Come on in." Larry stepped back, allowing Ed to enter. He closed the door and the two headed into the living room. Ed surveyed the scene in front of him and realized what he was seeing.

Larry cleared a couple of boxes from the couch giving Ed a place to sit. "I'd offer you something to drink, but there isn't anything. Water?"

Ed smiled. "That's okay. So, you came back to pack everything up? Did you guys find a house in Rhode Island?"

Grinning ever so slightly, Larry nodded. "Come with me, I want to show you something."

Ed followed Larry down the hall. He stopped outside of one of the doors and opened it. Walking inside, Larry motioned for Ed to come in.

After taking a second to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, Ed looked around and found a smile spreading across his face. The room was Danny's old room and was decked out like that of a high schooler from the 90's. But what was making Ed smile was the fact that Danny himself was sound asleep in the bed.

"We decided to come home." Larry whispered as he crossed the room and bent over to take the brace off of Danny's left leg. He pulled a blanket over his son and stood up to watch him sleep.

After a minute, the two men left the room, Larry pulling the door shut behind them. Back in the living room, Ed found himself still smiling.

"I have to admit that I was sure you guys were going to stay in Rhode Island."

Larry pushed aside more boxes and sat down. "Well, we were. We thought we had decided for sure a couple of days after you all left. I started looking for a house and Danny was checking out what his options were. Then I came home one day and found him watching the travel channel. They were showing a whole bunch of shows on Vegas. It was mostly stuff about the casinos and gambling, but it was enough. The two of us sat there and watched the whole four hours of it." He laughed. "We didn't really have to talk about it after that."

Ed smiled and leaned back on the couch. "Well, I can't say that I'm not happy. Everyone will be really excited to hear the news."

"Keep it quiet for now. I know that Danny wants to tell everyone he's back and he's planning to come down the Montecito to talk to you too."

"As long as the mohawk is gone, I'll consider giving him his job back." Ed laughed.

Larry shook his head, smiling. "It's already gone. Michelle took care of it for him; she gave him a haircut yesterday before we left."

Ed let his smile slowly fade. "What about Michelle and Kate? They both seemed to be pretty important to you guys."

"I would say they are very important to us. Michelle is planning to come and visit Danny, but contrary to even what I thought, they aren't a couple. I guess he just really needed a friend and she's who showed up. And Kate, well, she's a different story. We are a couple and we talked about it a lot; I think she's probably going to move out here." Larry found himself grinning like a teenager. "She had to call the VA in town to get all of Danny's records transferred and she asked about open positions. So we'll see what happens."

"That's great Larry. Who would have guessed that you would find someone in all of this mess?"

Larry laughed. "Not me."

As Ed's laughter died out, he looked around the room. Focusing back on Larry, he smiled. "So I have to ask… if you guys are staying here, what's with all of the boxes? I was sure you were packing up to move."

"This house is in dire need of de-cluttering. Danny is going to stay here, for now anyway. He's not ready to be completely on his own." Larry looked around at the mess. "I'm also hoping that Kate will be moving in and I never really finished clearing out things after Danny's mom died. It's time to move forward."

* * *

Danny stood outside of the main entrance to the Montecito and looked through the glass doors. He didn't see anyone he recognized and couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed at the sheer number of people inside.

Taking a deep breath, he moved forward and pushed through the door. With the amount of half drunk tourists and people generally not paying attention, he was glad that he didn't need a cane to walk anymore. He still had a noticeable limp, but it seemed to only serve him with people giving him extra room to walk. He made his way to the main service desk and asked to see Ed Deline.

The woman behind the counter asked for his name and Danny realized that she was new. He had to stop and really think to grasp the concept that it had been over a year since he was last here. The woman hung up the phone and said that someone would be down to bring him up to Ed's office.

Fifteen minutes later, Danny was sitting in a chair facing Ed's desk. His father had told him that Ed had stopped by the house earlier in the week and therefore knew that he was back. He was glad that he wouldn't have to deal with explaining his reappearance.

"Danny!" Ed closed the sliding door behind him and crossed the room.

Danny stood up to greet him and found himself caught in a hug. "I-it's good to see you, Ed."

Settling back in his seat, Danny fidgeted and stared at his hands. Instead of sitting behind his desk, Ed pulled the other guest chair over and sat there.

"So… Larry said that you had something to talk to me about."

Danny took a deep breath and looked up at his former mentor. "Y-yeah. I, ah, I'd like to work. But I don't think I can take my old job back."

"Of course you can! Danny, I've just been waiting for you to come back."

Shaking his head, Danny continued. "No, Ed. I don't think I can do it. I-I can't be in charge. My speech isn't clear enough or stable enough to be able to give orders or if something goes wrong…" He paused and looked around. "I wouldn't be able to do it. P-plus, I can't run, so chasing people through the casino isn't a possibility."

Ed nodded quietly. He hadn't really thought through what all of Danny's issues would mean in terms of his work. Now that it was all laid out in front of him, Ed could see that Danny was right. He frowned slightly and leaned back in his chair. "So what are you thinking?"

"J-just Joe security guy." Danny smirked. "I can watch monitors like the best of them. And no special treatment, Ed. I-if it's not working out, tell me. I don't want to be here because you feel you owe me. And if I feel like I'm not keeping up, I'll tell you."

"Okay, kid. You've got a deal." Ed nodded and reached out his hand.

Danny shook it and smiled. "I've missed this place." He looked around. "I just didn't let myself realize it because I was afraid."

"I know." Ed smiled and patted Danny's shoulder.

Mike pushed through the door into the security office, sighing because his lunch break was over. He rubbed his hand across his eyes, trying to refocus on work. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Ed was in a meeting. He turned his head to see who it was with and found a smile spreading over his face.

Rushing to his desk, he picked up the phone and dialed Delinda's cell phone, knowing she could spread news the fastest. "Hey, get everyone up here. Danny's in Ed's office right now!"

He hung up the phone and climbed the stairs to Ed's office. Sliding open the door, he caught Ed's eye, who smiled and stood up.

"Danny, man, welcome home!" Mike crossed the room and grabbed Danny in a hug as the other man got to his feet.

Within minutes the rest of their friends filed in, joining them. Delinda was first, closely followed by Nessa and Mary. Seconds later, Sam wandered in and a rare true smile crossed her face.

Delinda pushed Mike out of the way and kissed Danny on the cheek as she hugged him. "You got a haircut!" She grinned and rubbed her hand over his head.

Danny blushed slightly as Delinda stepped back and Nessa moved in. "Really good to see you, Danny." Nessa reached up and kissed his other cheek.

Mary smiled and closed the distance between them to give him a hug. "I'm glad you're here. We missed you."

When the others had moved away, Sam crossed the room and let Danny put his arms around her. She got her mouth as close to his ear as possible and whispered, "I knew you'd be okay."

Danny smiled and scanned the faces of his friends. He knew that whether he could really managed working at the casino or not, the decision to return to Las Vegas had been the right one.


End file.
